General Assembly Reviews
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Patricio Ordoñana Verified via LinkedIn
Digital Marketing Accelerated
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I took the Digital Mkt accelerated 1 week course and in general terms I can say it was a great experience. It's definitely a lot of information to digest in 1 week and I think that the final presentation complicates even more the equation because by day 3 everybody is more focused on doing that, than on processing all the different topics. However, I think most of the relevant topics are covered, the teacher shows a lot of knowledge about digital marketing and the course is well structured. Additionally, the school is really nice and well located, plus is a great place to get to know cool people. Overall it's a great option but I would try to do the part-time instead.
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Max Verified via LinkedIn
10 wk part time program is ok
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I already work as a designer and just needed to learn a bit more about UX. Just wanted to let others know that I enrolled in their part time 10 week course and found it quite useful. Of course this is not a comprehensive career switching course and only provides a good starting point (you will need to do much more in the future on your own or through other programs), but it provides good basic knowledge about the field and skills needed.
I do not regret enrolling and think that the course helped me get a boost in my design career. Not life-changing, but the course is pretty good.
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Elson Tran Verified via LinkedIn
General Assembly - User Experience Design Immersive Course
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I'm 6 business days removed from the course and I have an onsite interview with Amazon on 10 days after I graduated for a Designer Role. I am going through a recruiting agency but it was the resume rebuild that the outcomes program helped me with and my portfolio that was also designed in class that helped set me up. I received some prep info from the recruiting agency; after hearing what the company is looking for, I am confident that I have learned the skills needed from taking UXDI course. The next step is the interview process and making sure that I articulate my process clearly, something that is also taught as part of the immersive course. GA stresses so much how important networking is, and through networking is how I was able to get this onsite interview, I didn't wait till after I was done with the course before networking. I started early and told friends, family and anyone else who asked "what are you up to these days" about how I was going to a design school and where I wanted to be after. So when this role became available, a friend of mine contacted me and told me they have a opening for the role. Granted I didn't get hired or had the onsite yet, what happened here alone is a testament to how important networking is and that is why GA stresses it so much.
*Disclosure* I'm a very optimistic person, trying to find the lessons in every thing negative that happens so take that into consideration when reading my reviews.
About the school itself, I had a great experience attending the course. I made new friends with talented people that I still keep in contact with. I was fortunate enough to be able to take time away from working so I can fully immerse myself into the course. I understand that there are bills that need to be paid but it is also a huge load of stress of your shoulders if you don't have to worry about working at the same time since the immersive course is a 9-5 kind of thing, I usually stayed a bit later and some days till 8pm when they kick me out working on projects and other things.
The instructor we had was very knowledgable and experienced, he was able to answer every question we had in a manner that he didn't just hand us the answer, but asked thought provoking questions that would lead us to the answer. Theres an instructor assistant who was also very knowledgeable and welcome as well that we were able to bounce ideas off of. Their feedback was also constructive and provided valuable insight. They're not here to hold your hand but they will support you when and where they can.
Some other benefits is that you could attend any workshop that was hosted at GA for free, and there was also a hackathon at the end of the program. It was a great experience working under pressure with people you've never met before.
I feel like I benefitted from this course a lot and that it set me up to make the transition into the design field. The amount of work you put is what you'll get out of it to be honest, if you decide to put in as little as possible then of course you're going to benefit as little as possible. As RW3 would say, "the separation is in the preparation!" If you plan on taking this course, my advice is do everything as early as possible! If my resume wasn't ready to go right after I graduated then I wouldn't have been able to send it to the recruiter for my interview thats coming up. I also decided to code my own website using boot strap so that was a learning curve and took some time to polish as well (I'm still not done polishing it) but I started 2 weeks before class ended.
The only con I have is that its tough to schedule a time with the Outcomes Person. Theres only 1 person for Seattle and she's awesome but getting that individual help takes some time. When I realized that this was going to become an issue, I started scheduling multiple 1on1s with her way ahead of time.
Good Luck!
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Harry Stirling Verified via LinkedIn
Web Development Immersive
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General Assembly taught me enough to co-found and lead the technical development of my startup. Having tinkered around with some web development during uni (although studying Geology) I'd always been interested in coding but didn't have the confidence to make a career change.
Fast forward a couple years to when I met Johnnie, a TA(teaching assistant) at GA. I hadn’t heard of General Assembly at this point and within a few minutes of speaking with him, I felt like the ‘dark arts’ of coding were being demystified and providing me with the confidence to look into these boot camps/courses more seriously.
After a couple weeks of research and visiting a few different academies I felt that GA was the best of the lot with the most friendly team and well-varied curriculum for web development. I applied and was accepted after some code challenges and interview.
Day 0 - We meet the instructors, outcomes team and my classmates. WDI(Web Development Immersive) begun and I’d quit my job, oh sh1t this is real!
The beginning of the course is there to create the foundations of your development knowledge with HTML, CSS and plain JavaScript with libraries like jQuery covered. It’s structured well with daily assignments + morning reviews that happen throughout the course and is a great time to see a different solution or get help on your own.
The middle of the course gets tough and found it really challenging though immensely rewarding as at the end of the day when your head feels it’s about to explode you begin to do stuff second nature that earlier on in the course you could not. The group project also in this period was so much fun and the first glimpse into what working in a professional environment would be like albeit with your friends.
The end of the course like the middle was testing though at this point the training from the instructors kicks in. We’re not taught to learn the syntax or how quick you can write a function but how to problem solve, It’s perhaps the most crucial attribute a developer needs.
The final project which is normally done individually, I teamed up with a couple of friends that made it more fun but challenging as we dealt with git conflicts, way more code to ship and break. However writing our API ’s, integrating authentication and front-end logic became easier and we actually ended up with something that people couldn’t tell it’s been done by juniors (well at least someone not looking at our code haha).
1 - 3 students get picked to become a TA in the next course and for my cohort, I was lucky enough to have been chosen, which contributed twofold to my coding knowledge as when a student you see your problem vs a TA who sees the classes problems! Though not only my coding at this point was improved, my teaching/management skills that I’d ultimately be applying in my startup today called Bunk. If you're on the course and thinking about applying for the TA, go for it.
Something I’ve not mentioned (in this rambly story) is the social aspect to GA. It was loads of fun with lots of time spent at the Black Horse || leman street tavern. Also due to the intimacy/circumstances of the course (we’ve quit our jobs to follow this idea), there's a real common ground for everyone to get along and am still chatting with classmates today.
All in all the curriculum element was challenging but completely worth it. I was there to learn and what you put in with these sorts of things is what you get out. The support staff and instructors were awesome both when a student and TA, I couldn’t recommend this place highly enough for those thinking about becoming a web developer. -
Cheer Huang Verified via LinkedIn
UX Designer
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My background is in Anthropology and Architecture, and I have recently accepted an offer from a tech consultancy. It took me a lot longer (about 6 months) to get my first UX job compared to my classmates (some of them started working right after the course, and the majority got a job within 3/4 months).
The course was very well structured with a mixture of lectures and practical tasks (done individually and in groups). Some of my classmates felt the topics were not as indepth, but as a complete beginner, I felt there was a good amount material to learn. It was a close-knit learning/working environment so by the end of the course, we got to know each others pretty well. We still meet up once in a while and would like to do it more often.
The amount of career and personal development support suprised me. We received talks about insights of UX industry in London, tips on job search, and teamworking etc. In fact, teamworking is a major focus at GA, we worked in teams, we excercised agile ritual such as daily stand-ups and team retrospectives. In the first few weeks, we also had fun excercises that promote teamwork.
Generally speaking, it was a very positive experience at GA and I'm proud to be part of the community. It was the best investment I have ever made so far.
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Mark Winter Verified via LinkedIn
User Experience Design Immersive
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I studied at General Assembly from September 2017 through December of the same year. Education aside for a brief moment, I want to talk first of all about the class experience. The way the course is structured allows you to make friends very early on. As it continues you're shuffled around to get to know as many people in as great a depth as possible. It's a really welcomed consideration to the course itself.
The learning is done in the format of both lectures and practical work. After a lesson in Card Sorting (for example) you'll go away and prepare and work on an actual card sort with users for a piece of work that ends up in your portfolio. This type of learning, I find extremely beneficial as it lays the foundation in the theory and solidifies your knowledge by practicing it. In the environment of learning alongside your peers that you're forming relationships with, you're all able to learn at your own pace as well as help and be helped.
On a personal level, I experienced some problems outside of GA during my second week. They made it extremely clear to me that everything would be ok and they would do everything they could to support me through what was a difficult period during the course. This is something I'll always be eternally grateful for with them.
In January 2018 I was lucky enough to become the Teacher's Assistant for the latest set of students to enter the programme. To be given the chance to pass my knowledge on to a new group of individuals was something I was incredibly excited for. Having just gone through the program myself and knowing GA had acknowledged me as someone they felt could do the job, I honestly felt so proud I can't put it into words. The cheesiness of the sentiment really has no words.
For the 8 months, I was with GA (3 months education, 3 months working, 1-month interim, 1-month job support) I've developed such a great sense of achievement, unlike anything I've experienced before in other forms of education that rely on a graded system. GA provides something far more meaningful than a letter on a piece of paper. I've left their system of education with a portfolio to be proud of. Skills to find work and succeed in interviews. Ongoing support throughout my career. Encouragement to stay involved and iterate me to become as great a UX Designer as I want to be.
3 weeks after I'd finished my employment with General Assembly I was approached by a company to become the latest addition to their team. The staff has consistently checked in on me to see how things are going all the while remembering just where I am and the point I was at when we last spoke. This level of personal attention I find staggering.
In short, I can only thank General Assembly for everything they've helped me to achieve over this past year. It really has been the greatest year of my life to date.
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James Verified via GitHub
Good experience
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I honestly did learn a lot at GA, and I felt like without it, I would not have made as much progress as quickly as on my own. My instructors were great, and everything went relatively smoothly. However, 12 weeks is not enough time to learn everything, even things they teach you in class you will have to probably go over on your own afterwards in more depth. But they definitely do a good job at getting you exposed and learning to write fullstack apps. My main gripe with GA is the career services/outcomes team. There isn't much help from them in getting a job. They just kind of go over your resume and cover letter over and over and over. There is a showcase after you graduate where you can show off to employers, but no one from my cohort got hired (we had some very bright/talented people too) so I don't know how effective it is. Not too many employers showed up as well. So you are pretty much on your own for the job hunt, and it sucks because the NYC tech market is hyper competitive (the most competitive after San Francisco) making it very hard to land that first job. TLDR: GA is a good program to get you started on your journey to becoming a developer, but definitely expect to keep improving and learning (and relearning) after the course is over, and don't expect much help from them with getting a job besides resume/cover letter tailoring.
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Olga Verified via LinkedIn
General Assembly is more than just a course
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As a UI designer with certain experience in the industry, I needed to keep up to date with the evolution of the profession, so I wanted to learn UX. I've tried several online-courses, that were just about learning theory. It didn't work for, I needed to find a course with a more practical approach.
After studying different options (even in different cities through Europe) I've decided to go to GA. It was more expensive but way more impressive in terms of curriculum. Honestly, that was one of the best decisions I've ever made.
Why?
- 4 UX projects during 2,5 months (amazing practical experience!).
- Career support - a crazy amount of helpful tips&tricks for a job search.
- More and more companies are amazed by GA alumni and come back to GA to hire cool guys while they are still juniors.
- GA is not just another school, GA is a family. They support their grads no matter how long ago they've graduated. Moving to another city with GA campus? Come and say hi! And get a career support in your new city.
- Great, interesting and highly motivated people. This a place where I met my friends.
So now I'm in love with UX and I'm in love with GA. Highly recommend!
- 4 UX projects during 2,5 months (amazing practical experience!).
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Hannah Verified via GitHub
Career Change with Web Development Immersive
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I studied Art History at UCL and spent my 20s working my way through roles in arts organisations to become a Individual Giving Fundraiser at institutions including the Tate and the ICA. However, the came a point (when I turned 30 in fact!) where I realised I wanted to be much more hands on in my work ('build things') and explore other interests. I didn't think career change was a legitimate option until I was made aware of the existence of coding bootcamps!
After researching my options in London (who knew there were so many!) I decided to go with General Assembly(GA) as I felt welcome and supported from the moment I enquired about the course. I committed to the GA Web Development Immersive and studied harder than I ever have for three months. The tutors were excellent and made themselves available after class to review any problem topics or to help fix bugs! My classmates were brilliant and were great at keeping each other motivated in the face of any challenges or moments of exhaustion!
The curriculum was huge and in three months we covered HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery as well as Angular.js, React, Node.js and Express in conjunction with MongoDB and a variety of npm packages. We completed four different projects, each with a different stack. The only thing missing for me in hindsight, would be that I wish I had spent more time practicing and reviewing fundamental JavaScript and programming concepts. It is one thing to know how to set up a React app but not much use if you haven't got your head around the basic JavaScript concepts and functions which make the framework so powerful.
After graduating, thanks to the support of my classmates, tutors and the GA Outcomes Team, I was able to find a role as a Full Stack Developer at a start-up called JamieAi. I work on all our apps across the stack and continue to learn from brilliant colleagues and peers every day.
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Isaiah Berg Verified via LinkedIn
Web Development Immersive
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I had a very positive experience as a student of General Assembly's Web Development Immersive. I came from no computer science background, and am doing a career transition out of the military in my mid-20s. I am in a unique position as I am using this course as a springboard into business school, and not full time employment. I still think I can offer some valuable feedback to the course.
Pros:- Cohort was about 15 students. Strong collaborative culture. As students, we ate lunch together just about every day and enjoyed good conversation outside of the hard work we were doing.
- We had two excellent instructors who struck a good balance between us learning how to solve our own problems without wasting our time banging our heads against intractable problems.
- The technology stacks we focused on (HTML / CSS / Javascript / Mongo / Express / React / Node / Python / Postgres / Django / etc.) were all tremendously relevant and we got to apply them in our own projects. I learned the most through the projects and through through collaborating with fellow students.
Cons:
If I had to pick a con, I would say that some of the career outcomes work (called Outcomes) had some issues with organization and communication at times. Utilizing Github there was sometimes a disconnect between the request and submission of documents for review, like a resume or cover letter. The fact that I mention this small thing should be an indication of how well run the program is overall.
General Assembly gives you everything you need - you have to drive the car at the end of the day. I could not be more satisfied with my experience and hope to leverage what I have learned to pursue software technology entrepreneurship. -
Saba Shanaaz Verified via LinkedIn
General Assembly
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I completed my web development immersive course with General Assembly. Mornings at GA were always interactive following up with daily stand ups which involved challenges faced by each individual during projects or homework. This Web development immersive course was set in Agile environment followed by the interactive lessons throughout the course to overcome any issues and kept up-to-date with the latest technologies and current demand in market. The course is quite challenging and fast-paced as I had to build all projects in one week time-frame which developed my personality in ways I did not imagine. I am now ready more than ever to accept whatever challenges come in my way. The instructor and teacher are very helpful. I definitely recommend taking up the course with General assembly.
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Anonymous Verified via LinkedIn
GA Changed My Life
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I was extremely nervous to make a career change in my late-30s, but GA's User Experience Design Immersive program was exactly what I needed to help position myself in my new career in UX.
The coursework is voluminous, tough, and thorough. And my instructor was top-notch. He was clear with his delivery of the material, thoughtful in his dealings with the students, and provided guidance after the program finished.
GA's staff was genearlly friendly and did their best to make the students happy throughout the course. The Outcomes program (basically career counseling) was instrumental in my process of finding a job once I graduated. Lots of valuable information and availability to one-on-one conversations with the Outcomes team members.
I would absolutely recommend GA and its UXDI course to anyone considering making the jump into UX.
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Kyle Lawrence Verified via LinkedIn
Not as advertised
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Definitely not a horrible course, in fact if you are willing to work real hard afterwards then you can really get a lot out of it.
Pros: broad content, smooth delivery through Zoom, Github, and slack
Cons: lacks depth, no feedback on final project, no post-program career advice/job support
A note on the cons: I'm sure that if (when) I ask for feedback and career advice I'll receive some, but I don't think that having to ask for these things is the standard that should be set at these private tech schools. There should be a standard, systematic way for each student to receive feedback and career advice.
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Cat Verified via LinkedIn
It worked for me
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I made the decision to attend General Assembly's UX Design immersive program because I was moving to Boston for personal reasons, and I wanted to take advantage of the transition to do a career 180 degree change. As a former social science academic with a ton of customer service experience, I felt that UX design would be a good fit and that I had a lot of potentially transferable skills, but no training in design, nor any exposure to working in a corporate setting.
General Assembly really helped me make a successful transition into UX design, and the proof is in the pudding: after a 5-month job search, I found a job in UX that I absolutely love, full time with great benefits. My instructor gave her all, and I learned a TON. I have to also give a special shout-out the front lines staff at our campus, who go the extra mile every single day to make our GA experience enjoyable, fun, and full of pleasant surprises.
While the instructor was excellent and the curriculum took me where I needed to go in terms of a foundation in design thinking and methods, in my mind the real $$$ value of the program is in the Outcomes Support you get after you've finished the coursework. I think that it is more valuable for some than for others, but I was definitely one of the people who benefited immensely from it. The amount of support, advice, and even hand-holding at times that I received from my Outcomes officers was extraordinary, and almost certainly the reason I was able to get the job that I got.
To be fair, the GA immersive experience is not for everyone, and it requires A TON of work on your part to be successful, both during and after the actual program. It's also pretty expensive, so I recognize that I was extremely priviledged to be there in the first place. But I know that I wouldn't be where I am right now if I hadn't done GA, and I also have a wonderful network of friends and colleagues from the experience, plus a life-long professional community of alums to tap into in the future.My advice to anyone considering GA is this: try to talk to a couple of people who have done the program you're interested in *with the instructor you would have.* So much of the success or failure here depends on whether you can jibe with the instructor, with whom you'll spend 9-10+ hours a day for 10-ish weeks. Make sure that the instructor is fully dedicated to helping their students succeed.
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Steve Davidson Verified via LinkedIn
A poor experience
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Overall, a poor experience.
The pre-work was useful in getting across the basics, but the none of the actual course work was related to any of the compulsory pre-work.
Much of the interactive practical coding exercises were skipped over as the instructor focused heavily on mathematical theory. While understanding this is important, it was not tied into the actual coding as well as it could have been, if at all, leaving me confused most of the time.
We were asked to complete mid-course feedback, which was overall not very positive. General Assembly appeared to have delivered this feedback to the instructors immediately before the next class, resulting in a somewhat awkward atmosphere for the remainder of that lesson, which ended an hour early.
There were a few occasions where GA would deliver beers and wine for students... which the instructors also participated in, leading to let's say a very relaxed atmosphere where not much learning took place. There were also issues with course producers leaving GA mid way through the course. This was not communicated very well. I was trying to get in touch with someone to find out about homework, and no one replied to any of my emails, or messages left on the course's slack channel (of which the course producers and instructors were participants). That not even the instructors would respond to a request for information did not sit well with me.
This course was good for teaching me how to use Stack Overflow and Code Academey - most of my learning took place there as the course provided code in Github was often full of errors that sometimes even the instructors did not know how to fix. In addition to this, the instructor would sometimes not know how to demonstrate code in practice (maybe why they spent so much time on mathematical theory?) so they reverted to teaching us how to do things in R - which was not what we signed up for.
By the end of it, we were unable to submit the final assessments by the course end date, presumably because not enough people had managed to grasp the content due to its delivery. They added an extra two weeks for people to submit their final assessments via google hangout. The rubric for this was updated on the day the course was meant to finish, indicating the goal-posts were constantly changing for students right until the end.
Feedback for assessments was not delivered at all throughout the course. I met with the course producer after the mid way feedback, and was told I should have been getting feedback, but then nothing came of this until after the course ended where I was told I would be getting everything after the final assessment was submitted. Not a good experience.
Another comment about the calibre of training staff... There were two separate instances where I told the instructor I did not understand (so required help). In one instance, the instructor came to try and help me, but walked off without a offering a solution after he was unable to sort out the error message in the practice code. On a second occasion, he just walked away after I indicated I did not understand what we needed to do. (We had spent so much time on theory, I did not know how to code).
I did meet with the course producer after submitting my mid course feedback, and felt my issues had been listened to and addressed, but by the end of it, things just reverted back to how they were beforehand, which was greatly dissapointing. They did offer to call me to talk through my end of course feedback, but I felt this would be a waste of time given how things reverted back to their old ways after the mid course feedback.
Long story short, I would definitely NOT recommend this course to anyone who is looking to learn Python. You are best to do this on a website that offers this course for free, because that is what I ended up having to do anyway.
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Rachel Robles Verified via LinkedIn
A positive experience overall
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GA put together an intensive Data Analytics course that went through Excel, SQL, and Tableau in depth, as well as constructing effective presentations based on insights from data. The projects are hands on and give you a good understanding of each data tool. I personally have a background in Excel, so that portion of the class was a little slow for me, but the rest of the course really made it worth my time. There is no requirement to have any knowledge of Excel walking into the course, which could be a good thing for some. I think Excel is easy to pick up from tutorials on the internet, so I wish we had spent a little less time learning the fundamentals in Excel and more time on Tableau. Besides that, the teaching was great and they give you whatever help you need. There are a lot of times where the technology is faulty and it disrupts class because the display disconnects, etc. but the teaching in general is very effective. I got a lot out of the course!
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Steven Winkelstein Verified via LinkedIn
UX Design Full-time Immersive
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Denver General Assembly is a smaller, newish GA campus. I believe they're also one of the highest performing in the country. The learning experience was phenomenal, but the culture and networking was above and beyond what I expected. I made lifelong friends and careerlong contacts during this course. Our instructors were outstanding – genuinely great people who had decades of industry experience and also great teaching skills. We still stay in touch.
Our curriculum was cutting edge, incorporating the latest technology and centuries old, tried and true design theories. Industry professionals were woven into our days for panels and talks. We also spent time building our portfolios, working with real clients, and preparing for the job hunt. I know we learned the latest and greatest because I wowed potential employers at all of my interviews with my portfolio.
I felt like I was really well prepared for my job search. While most of my cohort found jobs within a month, I took a little longer but fell within my estimate of around 3 months. Career coaching was a priority at GA, and our coach was there to provide support above and beyond, introducing us to channels, people, events, reviewing countless resumé updates, and keeping us in line!
HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS COURSE!
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Chloe Verified via LinkedIn
Alumna
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I was skeptical when I enrolled in General Assembly's UX Design Bootcamp. It's an expensive, for-profit, unaccredited educational institution. Those characteristics go against everything I'd been told to look for in an educational pursuit.
As a graduate, I cannot say enough good things about the program, and I am jealous of the cohort currently learning with our phenomenal instructors. The instructors are, without a doubt, the backbone of the course. Our Denver instructors were passionate, supportive, and wealths of knowledge. They not only taught us a tremendous amount but also connected us with the local community and introduced us to awesome organizations. I feel fully prepared entering the world as a *junior* UX designer. I'm eternally grateful to them and the GA staff.
All that being said, this is NOT a job placement program; you absolutely have to hustle to get your first job, and no one can or will do that work for you. Our career counselor gave us all of the tools to position us to be the best possible applicants out there (seriously, I feel like I'm a LinkedIn, Meetup, and applicant tracking system guru), but even so, the job search takes time (it can be many months) and starting salaries can be low. I think this is all completely reasonable, and I'd only ask that GA be very upfront about this truth.
For me, the course was worth it. I'm happier and more excited about my work and my job than I ever have been, and I'd take the course again in a heartbeat.
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Hugo N Verified via LinkedIn
GA UXDI London - Feedback
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Great course. Got a paid internship / junior role within 2 months of finishing the course with a brilliant agency. The UXDI content is diverse and interesting, teaching staff are very engaged and just good all round people.
I now work in an environment I love with the best people I've ever worked with. Very expensive course but definitely worth it to leave behind a career that leaves you feeling meh.
The careers ('outcomes') team are absolutely brilliant. Just do what they say and be nice / keen and you can get a good gig afterwards.
One of the best things I've ever done. Thank you GA!
The caveats:
- really, really think twice (thrice?) about doing this if you have very young kids (unless you have full time childcare and/or a partner who doesn't want to see you for 3 solid months). You will work 6 full days a week, and some very late nights, and on day 7 you'll be braindead. This gets good results but can put a big strain on family life. That factor was my only big regret.
- cross your fingers for a good cohort. The people you train with have a big impact on how much you get out of the course
- the market for Juniors is pretty competitive so get ready to roll your sleeves up and be very proactive to get your first role.
- you will learn a lot in a short space of time, and yet not know very much when you come out compared to your colleagues if you work in a good agency. Don't expect to come out a pro. This is just the first step!
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Dylan Tan Verified via LinkedIn
GA UXD Feedback
GA in UXD provides me in-depth learning and best practices in UXD industry particular in design thinking and design process. My practitioner, Alvin Loh is helpful and answer all our questions as details as possible. As of now, I can be very sure I'm better prepared when I'm conducting UX process or workshop.
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Brandon Sears Verified via LinkedIn
The best choice for learning web dev
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I want to start by saying I am only 18. Most of the people I see attend this are in their 20s but don't feel like being younger than everyone will stop you if you are considering coming to GA after high school.
The course is fast paced and you have to put in the time and effort if you want to succeed. You may not have a whole lot of time during the weeks for the duration of the course so it's really a committment. I think the fast paced is perfect for learning, especially for web development. You need to be able to learn on your own as a developer and the course really encourages you to do that.
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MIRIAM B ESPINOSA Verified via LinkedIn
Learn in 3 months what you can learn in 1 year...
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I highly recommend GA for Web Development Immersive course for the people that want to do a career change into web development in a short period of time.
I have to say that the best way to do this course is by totally committing to it, giving up most of your weekends to get most out of it.
Joel teacher wast the best teacher I ever had. He had extensive knowledge in this field and was very lucky to have him as an instructor, same with the teacher assistants, they were extra helpful .
Also Lucy was super helpful with helping what to do after GA, and I really thank her for all her effort she put to help us all in having the job we wanted.
Joining GA was one of the best decisions in my life. I could not say anything bad about the whole experience, plus the new campus is great!!!
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Vasudha Singh Verified via LinkedIn
Amazing Course
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I started my career in design being an engineer. I always lack details on UX terms and process. I compared many courses available online and found some great feedback online. The syllabus was exactly what I wanted to learn. I decided to go ahead with this. It was one of the best decision I made to opt for this course. I have learned the whole UX process. This gonna help me in my career for sure.
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Vlad Nikitin Verified via LinkedIn
Good Program - Better Community
That course is like a guide to the new field. If you want to became really Data Scientist, you have to get more knowlodge beyond that course. Anyway they have very good instructors and community. Thanks.
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Shelby Verified via LinkedIn
Awesome Part-Time UX Course!!
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General Assembly is a great school for expanding your skillset. I was sponsored by my work to take the part-time UX course. I apply things I learned in my UX course at work and in life daily. Taking this course has truly influenced the way I think about design and approach problems. The classes are always interesting. I was never bored in class and I always felt that the material was relevant.
There were two main negatives to taking the part-time course. The first is that you don't receive direct job assistance from General Assembly like the full time course does. The second is that it can feel like there isn't enough class time to do activities or dive deeply into topics.
That being said, I loved the course and am thankful I had the opportunity to take it!
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Jacqueline Estrada Verified via LinkedIn
Great BUT...
The quality of the curriculum, instructors, job support, and facilities we're great. The instructors were great as well. Only issue I would have is that the ciriculum was TOO fast paced for me personally. Would have loved to seen a slower paced ciriculum offered.
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Ferenc Verified via LinkedIn
So you’re thinking about taking the Front-End Web Development at General Assembly?
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This was a blog post I wrote in 2015 about my experience at GA that I still this is relevant.
This was a really good experience for me. My situation is not going to be like everyone else’s, so let me give you the low down on why, for me, it was a good fit.
If you don’t feel like reading this epistle, skip to the bottom and read the section on “What to expect if you are thinking…”
I’ve been learning HTML and CSS off and on over the past six years. I bought books and read them. Did online tutorials. Had friends and co-workers walk me through the basics of HTML and CSS. I cannot tell you how many times I have created the “Hello World!” page. I have learned a bit over the years, but not enough to be considered dangerous by any stretch of the imagination.
I’m currently working at FamilySearch as a UX/UI designer. Been there for a little over two and a half years, and during that time our webDev team put together a skills building program. A set of requirements that demonstrates understanding, application, and proficiency of core HTML, CSS and JS principles. Developed for our webDevs, our UX El Jefe challenged the designers to get certified in a different discipline in order to have a more well-rounded understanding of how our designs are implemented in the code.
I cannot emphasize this enough: to learn how to code has been one of the best career decisions I have ever made.
“The more we know how the web works, the better we can design for it. A painter knows paint. A sculptor knows clay or marble. Musicians understand acoustics, feedback, mics, guitars, pianos, etc. There’s a technical aspect to every medium. The better a designer understands the technical aspects of their craft, the better their designs.”
–Tom DeForest, UX Heros: John Dilworth
Enter General Assembly
I did my homework and developed my own objectives as aligned with FamilySearch’s goals towards certification. Then I contacted General Assembly (GA) and told them I was interested in their program. Based on my prior learnings…if you could even call them that, I felt like I had enough background in HTML/CSS to make the course do-able and help me get certified. I received the course outline for GA’s FEWD program and ran it past my webDev managers. They thought it was a solid curriculum and gave it their blessing.
My FEWD class was taught by two developers; the course instructor is a professional in the web development community, and the TA is a recent graduate from the General Assembly Web Development Immersive program. My class was 10-weeks long and held on Saturdays from 10–5 at their Santa Monica LA campus. Class size was about 30–35 students.
I was really happy with the course. The highlights for me were: learning and understanding the HTML/CSS/JS syntax and document structure; responsive design and utilizing media queries; some Bootstrap and how to use the responsive framework; how to talk to my devs and use their terminology when communicating my designs. This one sounds a little funny, but it’s true: learning how to ask Google. Google will tell you anything you want it to, as long as you know how to ask correctly. If I have questions about code, syntax, structure, etc. I now know how to ask. Creating WordPress themes. This was a bonus. We built a custom theme in class based on a previous homework assignment. I was even able to turn my final project into a WordPress theme based on that class.
To graduate from the FEWD program there were essentially two requirements: attend 80% of the classes, and build a site that demonstrated what we learned. GA wanted us to build a multiple page site with linking pages, and use of HTML/CSS/JS.
Coding is a language. If you’re not going to use it, you’re going to lose it. Stay on top of it. Also, learn to jump in and figure it out.
What to expect if you are thinking about taking this class:
If you want to get the most out of this course, code. Then code some more. The best way to learn is repetition. I probably spent an additional 10–15 hours per week outside of class time coding. I did my homework. Deleted it. And did it again. The course is expensive. Get everything you can out of it.
The course is designed to increase your skill set, not to get you a job as a developer. If you are looking to change careers, this is not that kind of course. You will want the Web Development Immersive course or something similar.
You are not going to learn how to design for the web. You are going to learn how to code.
The lessons are structured as high-level primers with code-a-longs. The instructors expect you to take the initiative and learn to delve deeper on your own. Instructors are always available for questions and help.
I wish the instructors talked more about best practices and correct principles and guidelines.
The course seemed to cater to the people who were struggling with coding concepts. It slowed the overall pace of the class.
Make use of lab time and the instructors’ office hours. Their time is invaluable. Use it.
There are always events going on at the Santa Monica campus. For the most part, it was fine, but sometimes it got really annoying and distracting. GA needs a building better suited for the number of classes, lectures, and seminars at that location.
I wish we spent more time on vanilla JavaScript, but I think they could have spent the whole ten weeks just on this.
Free snacks and candy.
Great networking opportunities with classmates and instructors.
Access to GA Front Row, lectures and seminars.
Suggestions for General Assembly:
Expand the FEWD curriculum. If I was running GA, that’s what I would do. You can thank me later.FEWD 101
Utilize the current part-time FEWD curriculum. Overview and application of HTML and CSS with an intro in JS.FEWD 201
Full vanilla JavaScript class. Understanding the DOM and DOM manipulation. JS libraries and how they work and integrate with your site. A little bit of jQuery with an intro in Angular JS.FEWD 301
Getting comfortable with the command line. Using git and github and understanding version control. Scaffolding and frameworks. Drill down on all or few of these (Node JS, Angular JS, Express JS, Node Package Manager (npm), Bower, Grunt, Gulp, Yeoman, Web Starter Kit.) And finally, testing. You could work with companies that have hired GA WDI alums and adjust the program as needed.Hope this helps.
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Alex Verified via LinkedIn
Changed my life
I attend the Web Development Immersive program and it completely changed the course of my life and career. Everyday I am shocked and elated that this program worked so well for me and my peers. I recommend GA to anyone I know looking to make the switch into tech. I loved my experience and am grateful everyday for choosing to enroll at GA.
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Taj English Verified via LinkedIn
BEST SCHOOL EVER!!
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I can say without a doubt that going to General Assembly is the best thing I have done in life thus far. I went to multiple different open houses for coding boot camps and GA was the one that stuck out to me because of how open and friendly the staff was. I felt like home. My 12 week during the WDI course was like nothing I have taken before. It was rigorous but very rewarding. I was skeptical of the idea that I could learn everything to become a proficient web developer in 12 weeks and boy was a wrong. Not only was I able to finish my 12 weeks of coursework and continue on to land 2 software jobs after graduating. One of which I got because of GA's hiring network(Current Job) but I was able to go back and teach the knowledge I had received from GA. General Assembly changed my life and I couldn't be more grateful for a school like this to exist. I couldn't have done it without my wonderful instructors, classmates and the staff members at GA
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Dan Staton Verified via LinkedIn
General Assembly turned me from a Teacher to a Designer
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I joined GA in hopes of changing my career from being an elementary school teacher to being a designer for education technology. I had always been interested in user interfaces but didn't really see any college programs that would give me the value that I needed in such a short amount of time. The UX Design Immersive program at GA peaked my interest because I was told that I would learn about the user experience design process from research to visual design in 10 weeks. After I joined, I learned how fast, fun, and challenging the agile design process is. My instructor Natasha had such valuable insight after working in the industry, using real-life examples to answer every one of our classes questions (we couldn't stump her!) Working with others (both users and designers) at GA helped me understand the types of questions and tests that are important to go through to make sure that my designs were user friendly and intuitive. I also learned how to sketch, make wireframes, and create high-fidelity visual designs. I use all of these skills at my job today - I work at TeachersConnect and am their only UX Designer for their app. We work through one-week design sprints from research to visual design just like I did at GA. The several in-class projects and real-client project really allowed me practice my skills and prepared me for what I do every day at TeachersConnect. I was able to get my job thanks to the amazing career coach Julie that I had worked with during and after my program. Above all, I have come back to GA because of the community that is there for me. Everyone there is always willing to lend a helping hand (or do a quick user test!) My classmates are now my UX colleagues and good friends, and are all happy at their new UX jobs as well. GA was one of the smartest choices I made. I would recommend it to anyone who is willing to work hard and use the resources that GA offers to make a career change.
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Gerard Ho Verified via LinkedIn
GA Melbourne, Australia. My experience of a great journey through a career change
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Firstly to give a true and fair review of the General Assembly bootcamp I have to say I'm not paid by them or have any affiliations to market their business. I can choose not to say anything but I feel that I have to because I believe there are many people considering a career change into the tech industry (like myself) but do not know who to trust to help them get a job at the end of it. My review will be for GA in Melbourne, Australia, as I'm not sure if the outcomes are the same in other locations. To sum it up if people can't be bothered to read further, yes I got offered a job prior to graduating, yes I found other jobs, yes I am still working in the tech industry as a software developer. Also I didn't have prior education in any I.T related fields before joining.
I'm so glad to have signed up and gone through the course, to sum up the course in one paragraph I must say, the course is well structured and starts from the basics. I found that there was enough homework at the end of the day. The supporting staff are there to help from day 1. The teaching staff includes 1 instructor and 1 or 2 technical assistants. The course makes you want to step out of your comfort zone and you will make mistakes but that is a good thing as it is a safe learning environment.
Most importantly the material they teach is highly relevant for the current market. If you do everything as they say and continue to improve your skills you will be in a good position at the end of the course to find work you are interested in.
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Mohamed Farih Verified via LinkedIn
Front End Web Development
Great course and instructor. Just would like to get in to Javascript much sooner and stick with it longer
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Dennis L Verified via LinkedIn
Web Development Immersive / Product Manager
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I can't thank General Assembly enough for the great experience that I had. Prior to GA, I was working a retail job where I wasn't feeling fullfiled with the work I was doing. At the time, I was also self-learning how to code through Codeacademy, free tutorials from Apple's iBooks, and attending meet-up events after work. One morning while riding the subway to work, I came upon an advertisement that would encourage me to take the leap into changing my career.
General Assembly's Web Development Immersive course is a challenging course where you'll be coding from 9-5 with about 2-3 hours of homework that is due at 10pm. They make it clear to you from day 1 that WDI is no joke. I strongly recommend spending about 1-3 months preparing before you decide to take the course. Instructors won't always hand hold you so if you are not the self-learning type, this may be a very challenging course for you. Although I don't consider myself as someone who is an amazing programmer, I sat next to individuals in class who were. Choosing who you sit next to in class is quite important when you need help debugging or just catching up with what instructors are going through. I also highly recommend finding friends that you can work with after class in completing assignments. After all, software is a team sport.
In terms of job opportunities, I had known from the beginning that I wanted to go into a more business/tech role. I discovered the route of technical product management and expressed that to my career coach (who was super awesome by the way) and Outcomes manager earlier on. Learning how to code has opened up many doors for me. Currently, I just landed a role in PM so everything worked out in the end!
There are some people who has complained about GA but the reality is that if you are willing to put in the effort great things will happen! You can't expect to learn everything in the span of 12 weeks so instructors really do a great job at teaching students how to learn on their own as well as in team environments. I remember going to GA everyday (including the weekends) because I was 100% committed to succeeding in this course. I thoroughly enjoyed the time that I had there. Thank you General Assembly!
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Shaegan Vishal Verified via GitHubAN10Melbourne - Data Analytics
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One word - Brilliant.
This course was delivered in a timely and clear manner. Our instructors are knowledgeable and welcoming to new students especially to those who are not proficient or new to Analytics.The learning environment is practical and fosters creativity which is vital to a short course such as this one, allows us the freedom and confidence to experiment and improve when we are not in class.
Furthermore, the communication between instructors and the GA admin is immediate and informative - this is a huge stress relief for us all as undertaking this course while we have other commitments can be strenuous.
With that, it would be slightly more beneficial to students if the course could be more tailored to the local demographics - however I understand the course is designed in NYC, however some autonomy to the local instructors could serve to benefit students.
Other than that - I would 10/10 recommend this course.
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Victoria Temple Verified via LinkedIn
GA - Web Development Immersive
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I just graduated from General Assembly's Web Development Immersive in Atlanta -- WDI12. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at GA and feel confident that, with time, I will find the right company to exercise my newly honed skills.
The instructors, teaching assistants, frontline staff, and outcomes career coach make for a safe and challenging space in which to learn. From day one of the course, both the operations manager and the instructors make it very plain -- this is going to be exceptionally hard. It's an immersive, your days will be consumed with schoolwork 9-5 and 5-9. In my experience, it was more like 8:30am to 11pm every single day -- nothing but code, new tools, face palming because you were missing a semi-colon in one place and it took you hours to find it, frustrating, and maddeningly rewarding.
There is one variable that is beyond your control and that is who is sitting in the classroom with you. I cannot emphasize enough how important my peers were to me. I graduated with some of the most humble, compassionate, and brilliant developers. Every single person would happily pause what they were doing to help a fellow classmate whether it were to debug a problem or offer an opinion on styling. I hope every GA cohort is so lucky to have amazing peers and instructors to lean on.
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Patrick McCarty Verified via LinkedIn
WDI
Web Development Immersive
Full time Full stack developer bootcamp
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Muhammad Abubakar Verified via LinkedIn
Inspiration and Encouraging experience
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GA wasn't just about a coding experience, it has also given me an understanding of being adaptable to the ups and downs that we had experienced in the beginning of each unit. I now embody a strong self-belief that regardless of the outside circumstances, I am able to do whatever I set my mind to because I have done so many times before. Another great fulfilling experience was working in a group, it has helped me develop a team mindset and an ability to find the unique speciality in each of my team members. It also gave me a chance to push myself and support my team at the same time, which is a plus!
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Hilmi Samsudeen Verified via LinkedIn
Data Analytics at General Assembly
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Most appealing aspect of General Assembly courses is the practical and hands-on nature. We get the opportunity to learn concepts and become aware of relevant tools, then offers a platform to apply all we learn and share our findings in the form of a final project. Instructors are of high caliber, we are able to learn from true experts. Support staff are very friendly with great customer service. This course demonstrates "Data is the future of oil", when data is handled and managed appropriately, decisions can be more effective.
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Will Verified via LinkedIn
Life changing experience
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As a freshly graudated 22 year old math major with little idea of what career I wanted to pursue, I stumbled upon General Assembly's Data Science Immersive Program shortly after graduating and am extremely satisifed with my overall experience. My instructors in the course were extremely knowledgeable and taught me more than I ever could imagine in the course of three months. Although I can't say I'm a master of machine learning (it would be impossible to do so in just three months), I know what I don't know and have honed the ability to LEARN which is perhaps the most important skill in the tech industry nowadays. This course put me on track to succeed as a data scientist in my mid 20s and the confidence to go out into a job interview ready to answer techincal questions and having valuable skills to bring to the table.
One important thing to note about the course is that you really need to drive to constantly learn new things and also have some interest in mathematics/ programming or you will quickly fall behind. That being said if you want to make a career change into working with data and possess those attributes, the GA Data Science Immersive Program is a great start to catapult you into the field.
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Brandon Verified via GitHubExcellent Experience
I felt satisfied every day with the amount of knowledge given to me. This course is excellent for newcomers in Web Dev as well as people with more experience. If you feel like you are drowning in work just keep pushing through and you will succeed, they really do give you everything you need to succeed.
