General Assembly

My experience with General Assembly has been nothing but disappointing and frustrating to say the least. I enrolled in their Data Analytics Intensive program after a lot of research on boot camps, due to their impressive job report and their "commitment" to diversity and inclusion. Everything went relatively smoothly and as expected until my first week of class.  After getting put in a cohort where I was the only female identifying classmate (in a class size of 6), which I only found out on the first day, I politely alerted the student success "team" (rather one woman) that this was something that made me uncomfortable due to having a diagnosed mental health condition stemming from some issues/incidents that came about from working in a male dominated position prior to GA and that it was triggering to me to be in this class. At the same time, I inquired about moving classes to the sister cohort that was running congruently, just in a different time zone (which I knew had females in it), and was told that once the cohorts start there is no ability to move to the other one. (even though I brought up a real concern) Mind you, this policy was never told to me before hand or in any email or document I signed/received before hand AND I asked about this on the first day. Even my instructor was under the impression that this was allowed.  I did 16 years of formal education and was always allowed to move classes within the first week. (so if you have any problems with your cohort that you are paying thousands for good luck) After I was told this, I inquired about resources for women in tech and thought that maybe that would help to have a sense of community, if I wasn't going to get it from my cohort. (at the time quitting wasn't an option to me as I quit my job to take this course full time and couldn't wait another month and a half for the next cohort to start, which is another month and a half with out a full time income) The student success team then waited about 24 hours to even respond to me  just to tell me to wait a few more days for them to get me resources and wrote some generic supportive type messages. At this point I was getting incredibly frustrated that no one was doing anything about my mental health disability (considering they're so "inclusive", it was affecting my learning, and I paid them 16 grand) and their lack of response to it. By the third day, I asked to speak to someone over the phone that day to clear up these issues. I was ready to drop and just figure it out, due to the anxiety mounting and no one doing anything. During this phone conversation with Brittany Lewis, I was able to explain more about my issues, and was told there was accommodations for my disability, there would be a hold put on my funding (the loan had not funded yet) until this was resolved, that she was going to escalate this as an urgent issue to her manager if I was okay with it, asked if I could prove my disabilities, and that she would have something for me by Friday (this was a Wednesday). I felt better after this conversation and felt like with people aware of my problem, acknowledging it, and providing accommodations, I could succeed. I then received a message late Friday letting me know that there was no resolution yet but asking me if I wanted to drop still so I didn't have any more anxiety going to class, and if so she would let my instructors know. After receiving this message I lost any remaining hope with GA considering I was promised a resolution on Friday, I was at my wits end feeling like they kept missing the point, and agreed to drop (I did this thinking my loan funding was on hold and there would be some sort of satisfactory resolution coming) The entire week I felt like I had to fight them to do anything to help me (which is exhausting with my mental health issues and it seemed like it should be an easy resolve) , while trying to learn at a fast pace in the class, and having massive amounts of anxiety and stress due to the triggering gender dynamics of the class. When they did give me a resolution, there was a small credit offered (that needed to be used within 60 days) if I wanted to join another cohort and a 90% refund for this cohort. It took them a week to even come up with this and there was no discussion of accommodations they offer for my disability if I were to join again and be in this situation. After dropping I also discovered that my full loan amount funded to GA. As of a month after withdrawing, I still have NOT BEEN REFUNDED and get the run around when I email them about it. It's been absolutely nothing but lies and stress, yet the recruiter has reached out to try to get me to join the next cohort. (am I suppose to take out another loan when they never paused or refunded my other one?)  The entire process has felt fake and lazy. GA is a joke of an educational institution that gives you none of the benefits of a formal semester that, at least, my college offered (accommodations if people needed, timely responses to problems, the ability to change classes if you need to, proper refund procedures, proper staffing, etc) yet charges you as much if not more than a college semester. I am super upset as barring my experience with the admin team and the gender ratio causing me problems, I was excelling at the material and felt like there was so much potential. Ultimately, I could not justify the money paid for the treatment I was receiving. I had such high hopes for GA, I was excited about learning while having the help of an instructor, a network of alumni and cohort peers, and a career coach. But, unfortunately this company has done nothing but make my already diagnosed mental health problems worse.

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.

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. 

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.

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

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.