General Assembly Reviews
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Eric Nguyen
Efficient and Ambitious path
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I learned software engineering professionally within 4 months, and I underestimated how much I knew. After graduation, I decided to network with a state college and was surrounded by 3rd and 4th years, and I was shocked when I discovered that they were learning high school level programming content! I am proud to be a college freshmen dropout and took this untraditional pathway in order for me to pursue my career!
Once I finished this course, I felt like I was on my own, so make sure you hold yourself accountable after BootCamp. The job search will be tedious and difficult. -
Sandra Ariza
An unforgettable experience!
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Taking a technology bootcamp course was a huge scary decision to make but I am glad I did. The instructional and the support staff, such as the student success and outcomes advisors, are all exceptional. As long as you put in the effort they will go above and beyond to support you in succeeding. The program is very challenging and demanding but if you are determined and follow their guidance you will succeed. I completed the blended course which was the best fit for me. -
Bella Brache
Important but not the end-all
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Doing the General Assembly UX/UI course will be your starting point into a tech career, but it is not going to make up for any office experience or even real-world experience. I would highly recommend going into a similar field such as marketing or social media, to understand how office jobs work. There are also MANY UX/UI bootcamp students now, so do not believe them when they say you'll be set up to find a job. While I was employed within 2 months of my bootcamp, it was in an industry I had worked in before as a marketer. Many of my peers are still not employed one year later. -
Ong Song Yi
It was exhilarating and intense
The Data Science Immersive boot camp was an eye opener into how Machine Learning operates. As this is a growing field, there were multiple topics covered and even more topics to be self studied. -
Lim Rui Bing
Safe place to learn
In my bootcamp, everyone was non-judgemental, I just had fun learning with my class. The curriculum was great in preparing me for jobs too since it was directed at web development frameworks that are in demand. It was also very useful because there's sufficient hands on experience instead of just purely theory. Overall, was brilliant! -
EILEEN PNG YI LIN
Amazing Community
The community in GA is amazing! Coming to class everyday was exciting, the way the instructors teaches shows how much they love their job and how genuinely they wanted to help. They stand in students shoes and give advices outside of classroom as well. I definitely created life long friendships in GA. The 3 months in GA was one of the toughest but best 3 months i had. -
Adam Alexander
General Assembly has right mix of theory and practical
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I'm a mature age, working web dev professional who took a General Assembly Product Management course to brush up on my skills and investigate future career paths.
I'm currently doing a post-graduate certification in web dev now after not being at university for 25 years, and there's an incredible difference of learner experience quality between contemporary vocational education and institutional education. (Disclaimer: I have a chunk of experience in corporate adult learning and development.)
At General Assembly, we had access to a working, veteran professional twice a week for 10 weeks, and everything we did in class and homework was working to the end assignment for course completion, a product strategy presentation. The expectations and grading rubric were clear.
At the institution where I am studying now, the units are being led by 'eLearning advisors' who have only superficial knowledge of the subject matter. Students have banded together to form their own study groups because the promised collaborative learning experience is giving no value. The assignment requirements are hazily defined even though they involve clear demonstration of measurable competencies (ie coding).
I've heard the platitude that 'the university experience is what you make it' a few times now but that just seems to let the bureaucracy of these institutions off the hook. Plenty of money is spent on course advertising and student onboarding, but not enough on course materials and experienced teaching staff.
Ugh, I didn't mean for this to be a kvetch about my disappointment with tertiary education institutions!
My experience has highlighted how General Assembly's model to practical capability development is vastly superior for the modern digital age, and that current education and certification paradigms are ripe for disruption.
I thoroughly recommend General Assembly for their curriculum, approach to continuous improvement, and learner support. -
Harel Kelly
Not for beginners
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For someone with no background of product management this course promises that it is recommended for beginners or no background, it also promises that a career help will be given.
After struggling for the first few weeks I found myself in a bit of a struggle to keep up.
John and Alex where very good but again to much to cover for someone with no background.
As soon as the course was finished I heard nothing from anyone even though it says that a career help can be provided.
For the amount I have paid I at least expect that the core values will be delivered.
Kind regards
Harel -
Stevie
Great Experience!
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I had a great experience attending General Assembly's Software Engineering Immersive. My Instructors were very patient and understanding, even without any previous knowledge. I saw many people make full-stack apps after having little or no experience coding. The course load is very demanding, as you will be on camera 9 - 5 every day and have 4 hours or more of homework. Although it is a lot of work, the instructors were great at guiding us. The course will not teaching you everything, and you will sometimes feel as if you still don't understand things, but in the end you will learn a lot and it will prepare you on your Software Engineering journey going forward. There is also Outcomes, which helps you with the job search. One recommendation I would have is more direct resources for student post-course. By this I mean access to Apprenticeships and Internships that otherwise are usually only available to college students. Knowing apprenticeships were available post-course would go a long way to ensuring that people would feel even more comfortable entering the program. -
Taher Khatieb
Professional academic training.
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It was an excellent experience for first time online coding bootcamp, instructors were so professionals and helpful. They used their knowledge and experience to lead and guid all students equally.
For me as non native English speaker (intermediate English level) was a bit hard for me to catch up every thing at the beginning and the course leaders were so patient by repeating and explaining more deeply.
General Assembly is a professional team academy 100%. -
Suzette Gaynor
Data Analytics with Prasanth Thangavel
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Prasanth was the bomb! Super consistent, patient, and supportive. There was so much information stuffed into 10 weeks, and he helped adjust the pace of the course as time went on. Additionally, I learned a lot being with different classmates who had various strengths. GA curriculum was easy to follow and clear with no surprises - I rated it 4/5 mainly because I wish we spent more time on SQL and less time on the tableau segment. Highly recommend this class. -
Ravi Jain
Waited over 3 months for my certificate of completion
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After completing and passing the course, I had to wait over 3 months for the company to provide me my certificate of completion. I had to pester and constantly follow up, and never was provided any more information than, 'we're working on it.' Only until i resorted to social media did something actually get done about it. For a company that works with industry leaders I was blindsided by such a poor experience. I will not be taking a course from GA again. -
April Lim
Digital Marketing Immersive
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I have just graduated from a 2-month full-time Digital Marketing Immersive course at General Assembly, Singapore. It was a very engaging, fun, and intensive course that I enjoyed and benefitted from. Michael Buchholz was our instructor. He was very generous to share his in-depth marketing experience and provide invaluable insights. The highlight of the course is the pro-bono client project which is also the capstone project. With guidance from Michael, we applied what we had learned to develop digital marketing campaigns for a real client who was very pleased with our work. In short, it was a high-quality comprehensive hands-on project-based course that transformed me from a novice into a job-ready digital marketer. I would recommend General Assembly Digital Marketing Immersive to anyone interested to take a digital marketing course.
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Bridget
Engaging remote learning with legendary instructor team
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I recently completed the product management 10-week part time course with GA, remotely in Melbourne. I was worried about remote learning as I can find it difficult to be engaged but I found that the use of group, partner and solo activities around the core learning to help with this immensely. I love that the instructors were available for us to pick their brains around their real-world experience - I gained some invaluable learning this way. -
Martin L. Diaz, Jr
CATALYST (Income Share Agreement)
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I'm in the process of enrolling in GA's immersive UX and learned from their Admissions officer that their Catalyst (ISA) is NOT available anymore in California. Seems CA and 4 other states, per the Admissions officer, have regulated ISAs in order to protect consumers. I was really counting on this ISA, but now I'll likely have to apply for a loan- very disappointed. Good for consumer protections... but bad for folks in this process like me. Darn. -
RD Johnson
GA UX Design Immersive Full Time is Worth It
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For anyone who is on the fence about bootcamps, or comparing the long-term value of bootcamps- General Assembly includes a career coaching component to the lessons and portfolio projects that set it apart from other bootcamps. There's a long-term value proposition that you take with you long after you graduate: how to effectively create a personal brand, network and find mentors -things that you probably won't find at many traditional colleges and universities until the last year in some cases.
The instructors are also professionals working in the industry. Nothing is theoretical, everything is practical. The lessons are a) broken into project-specific components that correspond to portfolio work, and b) emphasize working with different parts of a team or department, so that when you graduate you know the importance of, for example, communicating early and often with DevOps if you are a designer, researcher, project manager or strategist.
You might loose a few nights of sleep if you sign up for the full time immersive, because the projects ramp up quickly in terms of complexity- but I also thought that was a good thing. -
William Park
Trouble getting refunded
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After paying in full for a Web Development course, I had to reschedule to another time. However, I am still having trouble getting refunded. I asked to cancel within the allotted time frame (within 14 days). Contacted customer support and admissions, they tell me to talk to the person who helped me with registration. I contact her (Tanya Clark) through email, no response for a few days. I call her and she says she has been out of the office for the past few days. Great. She says she processed the cancellation. I get an email for a voided student agreement. That was over 7 business days and there is no sign of my refund. I call her again and I get this pissy attitude saying she cancelled it already, she sent multiple emails confirming the cancellation (I did not receive anything since then). Making me feel like I'm in the wrong for bothering her. Well, if you could just give me back the $3000, I'll stop. Simple, no? Baffling that an incompetent person with the emotional capacity of a 12 year old child is working in a customer support role. -
Sandrine Choiniere
UX Design
I took the UX Design course from November 2021 to January 2022 with Matthew Reiswig. This is a fantastic class! I cannot recommend it enough. We were given all the tools and resources to get started as a professional UX Designer. I am definitely leaving this class feeling energized and empowered to tackle this new world of opportunities that lies ahead. -
Antonio Pio Rizziello
Data Analytics
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I am satisfied with the depth of the content, the quality of the teaching (Chris was fantastic!) and GA overall (platforms and UI). However, in my opinion, this course is overpriced.
The course costs £2,800 and I did the 40 hours intensive course completed in 6 days.
I paid in three instalments which helped, but I believe this course would be better priced at £2,000.
I am happy to have enrolled on this course. However, in my humble opinion, this didn't seem good value for money. -
Arya
UX design course
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Not worth it, It is super hectic and fast-paced. Classes start with full-day presentations (similar to recorded videos) none stop from 9am to 5pm, then on the third day you have to turn in your project and if your project is not good enough, you are out. (Just like that).
If you can learn by yourself from YouTube then you can learn in this course also.
There are zero one on one or individual attention,(There is not even any time for it) You will be super exhausted by 5 pm which you can't even review days materials) Classes are around 20-25 students with one instructor and a student from past course as an assistant. (Instructors have design jobs on the side also so right by 5pm they will disappear to go after their day job.)
I would recommend it only if you are good at learning by yourself videos. -
CDLacey
Part-Time Data Science Course
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This course was really great to learn about the different applications of leveraging python for data science. I really enjoyed the two part presentation (apply learning to a dataset of your choice - presenting your analysis at two points during the course.)
Definitely gave me confidence to continuing learning in this field.
Overall, course is great for anyone currently doing some degree of analytical work and who would like to expand their skill set. -
Lola
User Experience Design Immersive
This program was both challenging and rewarding as well as a great first push in the right direction for my career switch. Also, I was very fortunate to have an amazing and dedicated coach Anna K. that helped me land my first role post bootcamp. -
Mehran Gazeroon Shiri
User Experience Design Immersive program
I could have not asked for a better program. I have learned so much in the past 12 weeks -
Raina Yan
Data Analytics Course Review
The instructors are professional and supportive, I took 10 weeks data analytics course which is intensive, but is also informative and well organized. The course is suitable for full time workers who have interests in data analysis and want to acquire Excel, SQL, and Tableau skills. -
Catherine
Provides a solid foundation to build on
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The course at GA was well structured and jam packed with relevant and easy to follow concepts. The support staff were very professional and supportive. The teacher was very generous with her time and extremely knowledgable. The curriculum is a good mix of class time, activities and practice time. The online class experience was very easy and collaborative. I would recommend this course to anybody who wants to get into the UX field. -
Andri Rafti
Incredible
I learned so much in such a short period of time, GA has taken me from knowing basic HTML, CSS, JS to being a full stack developer. After graduating I managed to add another 2 full stack applications to my portfolio, which goes to show you don’t even need your teachers afterwards to get stuff done since they teach you everything properly so it sticks! -
Vyacheslav Starkov
Great opportunity for growth
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I took an on-campus Software Engineering Immersive course at General Assembly in Manhattan and I had a great experience. The on campus atmosphere was nice and friendly and conductive to learning. The professors and TA's were available for help and excellent at teaching technical skills as well as explaining what is relevant in the industry. The outcomes team and career coach were super helpful in explaining what the field is like as far as job seeking and getting through interviews in the software engineering field (this was an area I felt inexperienced with and unsure about). I finished the course feeling much more confident about that. The staff was cool and so were fellow students, who were as driven to grow and succeed as I was. We formed some awesome friendships there. Overall, it's an experience that helped me grow and get the kind of job I was looking for, so I recommend it. -
Nicholas Pretel
Software Engineering Immersive
Enrolled in General Assembly's 480+ hour Software Engineering Immersive program, covering HTML, CSS, Javascript, JQuery, ReactJS (router, hook, context, Jest), Node, MongoDB/Mongoose, Express (mocha, chai, supertest), SQL, Python, and Django. Covers a broad range of subjects at a fast pace. -
Zain
GA Immersive Software Engineering Bootcamp
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Trying to crack into the tech field without the resources/network/knowledge is a tall order but through the GA SEI Bootcamp, I was able to launch into a career despite having little development/coding experience before joining GA. This doesn't mean that it will be easy, the months spent in the course were some of the longest/hardest times but the instructors/TA's & your fellow classmates truly help propel you to the finish line. While there are definitely some things that could be improved upon (some lectures were not updated/group time truly dependent on if the individuals cared about doing work that day) the overall experience was great. Outcomes were extremely responsive post-course and helped improve my chances of landing a full-time position. At the end of the day, as most others have already said, the amount of effort you put in will show in the end. -
Nicole
Intense but Valuable
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Bootcamps are not for the faint of heart. GA made sure to let me know this, from the interview process to enroll, to the pre-course work, inclusive subscription to a wellness coach via Ginger app, your on-call course Student Success Specialist (mine was Lo - they were super supportive!), scheduled teacher check-ins, the built-in supportive channels on the GA Slack network, and the STRONG suggestion to treat this as a full-time job from day on top of recommendations to schedule in self-care time and have support people outside of the course to unwind with.
I say this to show:
A. Yes, it is really is an intensive - and, at times, brutal - amount of work (because the diversity of the topics means there will always be elements you're weaker in)
B. They don't treat student intake casually - it's quality over quantity and
C. They're constantly iterating the course process to better set up for success with each cycle.
During the course, I was in class or working on assignments for most of my waking hours. I definitely investing in an ergonomic chairs, second screen, blue light filter glasses and taking screen breaks. The biggest factor of course satisfaction is going to be my co-students and the instructional team and they were both freaking excellent. Our course started our large enough to get 2 Instructors (Emily Landsman, Jeffrey Preston) and 2 Instructional Assistants (Aly Gombos, Jennifer Houlihan) and all of them had a different skill set, backgrounds, and approach to teaching. We also were the test-run class for a UXDI/SEI crossover project which taught us a lot about interacting cross-departmentally with software developers. I've learned so much from each of them and IAs have both reached out to let me know about jobs postings relevant for me or to advocate for my skills even months after the course ended. My student cohort was amazing and even 6 months later are some of my closest friends. I genuinely miss those long, intense, productive days of class!
Screen fatigue is a thing and remote work can get lonely, I'm so glad the remote option is available since there's no campus anywhere NEAR Pittsburgh, PA. Even then, I can't imagine adding in transport time/money it would've cost for an in-person class. Most of all, being over Zoom means that each lecture is recorded so that I can go back and replay whatever lesson I need whenever I want. :)
Last but not least: Outcomes. The post-course employment assistance GA includes in course enrollment is a serious lifesaver post-course. My Outcomes Coach Julie has kept us all accountable, afloat, and in the right headspace through the epic exhausting adventure that is landing that first job. They've tried new strategies almost monthly to find new ways of giving us an edge in this pandemic landscape where job fairs and mingling events are no longer a thing - seriously it feels like Outcomes is working just as hard as we all are to find how to get us hired. I'm in the middle of the interview process with a company they connected me to with their most recent addition, a GA-based Referral Program system. -
Hanna B
Hard Work Pays Off
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I attended General Assembly's Software Engineering Immersive remote program in January of 2021. Overall, it was a very positive experience for me!
Even though it was remote, my cohort was "New York-based" so we operated on Eastern Time and most of the instructors were from the East coast. I was told that the New York cohorts are unique because they use a different instructor for each of the 4 units. Other cohorts apparently usually have 2 co-instructors that switch off and each teaches 2 units. This was both a pro and a con sometimes for me because the program is 12 weeks long and the units are only 3 weeks each. Just when you get comfortable with the instructor's teaching style, you are whisked away into the next unit with a new instructor. This can be a positive if you don't really like a particular instructor or are struggling with the teaching style, but it can also be negative since it can be jarring to switch up so quickly.
Overall, the program is intense! I'm sure you've read many other reviews that say this because it's true! It can definitely get overwhelming, especially if you have little-to-no experience with coding/programming before entering the program. You can easily bet on having 10+ hour days at least 5 days/week. What's nice is that you usually get a little bit of a break during the weekend because Friday's homework USUALLY isn't due until Sunday of that week, so you can take a weekend day off if you need/want.
Ultimately, you get what you put into the program. I mentioned before that it can be very overwhelming to learn new languages in general, but especially if you don't have any background coding experience/exposure. That being said, there were quite a few of my classmates that had very little prior experience with coding that did extremely well. If you're hungry to learn and truly invest yourself in this bootcamp, I believe you will have a positive experience. This is definitely not an easy program, you will have to put in the work, but if you do, it will be worth it!
About job support: each cohort has a dedicated career coach which you meet with (as a group) multiple times throughout the program. Your career coach creates interactive presentations on various topics regarding the job search such as: building your personal brand, tips for your portfolio website, etc. If you qualify for Outcomes (which is GA's program for job-seekers), you are given additional support such as more meetings/workshops with your career coach and additional slack channels for job seekers where jobs are posted multiple times per day, often from companies who have hired GA grads before.
I had a very positive experience with GA's Software Engineering Immersive program and truly believe that anyone from any background can be successful if you work hard, stay positive, and keep a growth mindset.
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Aleksei
Software Engineer Immersive Remote
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I graduated from General Assembly Software Engineer Immersive Program in January 2021. It was a wild ride and I loved every second of it. I didn’t have any prior programming experience, so I got to make an extra effort in order to catch up with the cohort.
I am extremely grateful for our amazing instructional team and all of the collaboration with my fellow classmates. GA provides after-hours support, short one-on-one sessions on Saturday’s and a bunch of different educational materials besides the regular lectures.
Be ready to spend at least 6-8 months before you’ll land your first job. As for me, it's been only 3 months since I've graduated and I’m not even close to it. The payment program is helpful through and it is nice to know that I don't have to pay anything back until I am employed full time. -
Marcello Pozzoni
Data Science
Part time course for Data science and Machine learning -
Jane
PM intensive was great
The course provides a really good foundation for what Product Management is, and how it varies in organisations of different sizes and stages of growth. It explains the basics of complex frameworks, and gives you the opportunity to put them into practice in your own mock product discovery project- all in a whirlwind 5 days -
Kellene
Best experience
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For a long time, I tittered on whether or not to go back to school to pursue UX Design. During my research for which schools, I spoke with a few UX designers and product managers that said they typically hire from General Assembly and have always been pleased with their hire. Once I started, the curriculum was so clear and the instructors were amazing--truly cared about our success. Furthermore, our cohort had access to a career coach who through it all helped us gear up for our career change. I can't say enough positive things about GA! -
Abby Tresalus
UX & Product Designer
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I took the GA UX Design Immersive course to pivot into UX from healthcare. From someone that didn't know what to expect when investing (yes, because it is an investment) in the course, I felt as if I left the program with a good foundation of what UX was and enough skills to feel confident in continuing my stride to get my foot in the door at an Austin based company. At the time I thought the curriculum was okay. Over a year later, I now work for GA and I have seen a tremendous improvement in the way they are teaching students and supporting students post-graduation. The new curriculum really allows students to start using design tools on day 1 of the program (a big change). The lessons are more in-depth and the instructors are encouraged to be open and speak about real-life experiences. Also, students are given portfolio reviews by industry professionals (super valuable, I wish I had that coming out of my cohort).
Overall, I know that GA isn’t perfect, but I appreciate the fact that they are always moving forward to make sure that they are giving their students an experience that mimics the real UX world. -
DaiJea Fuller
So glad I did this!
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I took the User Experience Design immersive course (Remote) in 2020. The course overall was a great introduction to what UX/UI meant and how to apply it in the workforce. As someone that did not come from a tech or design background, this was very helpful and I never personally found myself blocked or falling behind because of my lack of experience. It really is an entry point! The instructional staff was always there to answer questions, provide examples or review my work. There is an Outcomes person that works with you on interview/resume/overall job hunt prep as well. While this person does not provide job/intern placement, they really do put the tools in your hands to get out there and succeed! I wish we had more time with them but the time we did have was valuable. The cohort I was in had around 20 people (give or take a few) and with two lead instructors and two instructional assistants, there was always someone to talk to. If by some chance they were all busy or it was after hours they always would set up a 1 on 1 the next day or answer as soon as they could in slack.
One negative thing I will say is that because it was online, time zones were kind of a struggle for group projects or student communications. It was not the end of the world for east coast people but some of my west coast cohort mates were a bit thrown. Of course with anything, price matters. I personally was able to use the Vemo education plan so that was a huge help and a deciding factor in me selecting GA.
Overall it was a positive experience and I would recommend the course I took to others that were interested in the field.
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Jennifer Houlihan
Life changing
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It took me a long time to decide on a bootcamp. I was over 40 and had been out of school for a while, and wanted to make a major career change. It was going to be a major investment of time and money and I needed to be confident in my choice. The UXDI program at General Assembly delivered on all of its promises and more. The application process and pre-work really helped me shift into a growth mindset and set me up well fr success in the classroom after years away. I also benefitted from the Catalyst program, which let me defer course payments until after I had graduated AND landed work in the field. It was an intense experience and took determination and hard work, but instructors and career coaches and staff were beside us every step of the way to help keep us on track. Two years later, I have all the UX work I can handle, I'm earning almost 60% more than in my previous position, and still have time to volunteer my design skills with local nonprofits that are important to me. Plus I've met some of the best, coolest people on the planet! Do your research, for sure - I did. But I am really pleased with what I was able to accomplish through General Assembly. Highest recommendation. -
Wendy Reid
UX Design
The GA team worked together to give me all the support I needed to learn. I could not have (would not have) done this on my own. -
Penny Jungreis
GA changed my life!
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For several years, I had been feeling like I was wasting my potential in my job when I got the idea to try some online coding classes. I practiced first on Codecademy for free, before enrolling on General Assembly's online front-end web development course. My instructors in Sydney were fantastic and I was so sad when it ended that I signed up right away for a full-time, three-month bootcamp in London to learn full-stack Software Engineering. This was a huge financial risk because I had to leave my job, but it was worth every penny!
I got to build a portfolio of projects using the most employable technologies right now (eg. React, Django, Node), which I could show to potential employers and clients. I was a bit nervous to do the course remotely, but GA has been doing this since long before the pandemic and the whole team was well prepared to answer questions and support me every step of the way. I am finally excited about my career again and hopeful for the future.