General Assembly

I've taken several bootcamp classes and workshops, and am currently 6 weeks into the Digital Marketing Part Time program. The bootcamp classes are crash corses into a particular subject such as Google Analytics and Google AdWords tought by people who actually do this for a living! Well planned, really good use of my limited personal time, and tons of additional resources so you can continue to practice the tools and continue learning and fine tuning once class is done. I love the weekend bootcamp classes, even though they are during the summer. 

The Digital Marketing 10-week course is a great deal of information that is relevant to today's tech jobs! If you look up descriptions for digital marketing jobs you'll see a vast majority of these skills and tools you need that's covered in this course. I highly recommend. Pre-work and homework solidifies what you learn and additional resources are provided with each class. My instructors Kim and Quison are amazing, down to earth and very willing to put up with tons of questions! 

I browse General Assembly's website a few times a week to see what new classes and workshops and events they have that I can use to build my professional skillset. And gotta love the brain boosting oatmeal and constant hot coffee and tea on each of their floors. (super clean fridges and mini-kitchens too!)

I took the part-time Data Science course in the summer of 2014, and it changed my life for the better. As a non-programmer, I spent a significant time preparing for the class by doing all the pre-course work. I highly recommend it as the students that appeared to struggle in the class clearly didn't have any foundation in Python and hadn't completed all the tutorials. I really immersed myself in the projects and assignments, and came out of the class with a really strong foundation in Python and machine learning techniques. My teachers were supportive and found ways for me to encourage exploring beyond the course material. At the end of the class, I still might not have considered myself truly "proficient" in Python or machine learning, but I definitely got all the information I needed to self-learn. I think that is the true indicator of a good introductory course -- that you have a high level of confidence that you can continue learning on your own. All in all, I highly recommend and the GA space / environment / people are very warm and welcoming.

The Web Development Immersive class at General Assembly was a life-changer for me—this despite the fact that I'm already well down life's road. ; - ) Actually, it's no doubt because I'm beyond the average student age that I was able to take it all so seriously, and take so much from it. 

Granted, I did somewhat cherry-pick my favorite parts of coding—i.e., JavaScript, HTML, and CSS—but doing so was all to the good. Having a wide expanse of offerings during the three-month WDI class afforded me the opportunity to see where my interests and background were best suited, so that my nascent skills could grow in the right garden.

The GA campus itself is wonderfully conducive to learning; and the administrators are knowledgable, hardworking, and delightfully friendly. (BTW, I don't have any stars for Job Assistance yet because I have yet to take advantage of this service.)

As someone who'd spent about 3 years self-learning programming as a hobby, knew I wanted to transition to software/web development as a career, but didn't have much exposure to web development, the Web Development Immersive course put me in a position to capitalize on the great opportunity it presented. The curriculum was packed with useful exercises and well taught lessons by instructors that understood what they were teaching and were always willing to help ensure students had all the help they needed. Because this course covers so much information in a short time, it requires hard work to pay close attention, study and research to make sure you understand topics at a micro level. Understanding and completing exercises the right way is key to success; taking shortcuts is not advised. The multiple programming challenges each week were super helpful to hone programming chops while also further imprinting the content learned. Outcomes was great throughout and provided useful resources and advice on how to approach the job search/interview process. The GA employees I encountered (not limited to instructors) were super nice and left me feeling that they are good people. The course producer and instructors were always eager to listen to any constructive feedback given so that they can improve for current/future courses. Overall, I'd classify my experience in the Web Development Immersive as being excellent.

I am currently a product manager. I took the class to be more effective in my role, understand the products I'm working on better, and have fun on the side being able to build my own websites.

The class gave me those things and more. I refer to what I learned when talking to our engineering team about a feature, or when talking to our customers who are also Front End engineers.

Also, my instructors and classmates were impressive and I enjoyed getting to know them. I am still friends with one of the instructors. 

Interesting mix of backgrounds which made for great discussions in class. Awesome experience - thanks GA.

TL:DR - An epic summer, it was a great 3 months and i became a web developer. It was difficult, it was intense, at times stressful, but ultimately a lot of fun. And, i left with a job at a great startup in London's tech sector.

I chose General Assembly because the people were open, honest, were great teachers, very skilled developers and fun to be around. You'll be working there for 3months, fulltime, so you've got to enjoy it. 

It was a very hands-on course and focused on building good websites.  We started, from day one, using tools and techniques I now use on a daily basis as a web developer. There were computer science fundmentals, how to write good ruby and javascript code, and how to use modern tools to create complex websites. We learnt all of it because we actually created websites (and these were our portfolios to get a job).

General Assembly also put a huge amount of effort into giving students the best learning environment. There are tutors to help students in the evenings, after classes. There are experienced teachers, all of whom are active developers and know the latest technologies. And, their community is massive; you will gain a lot of contacts.

After much research and consideration I joined the GA WDI course in London in Spring 2014.  The course was incredibly intense - but we had a great set of teachers, an in class teaching assistant and past students who came by in the evenings to help out with homework. There was a huge amount to cover and it was intellectually and emotionally challenging - but there was always someone there to offer feedback or hear my and other students thoughts on the course. The work itself was interesting and there were different levels so that you could always push yourself to the limit.  The classes were a mixture of lectures, follow along coding sessions and free coding in groups of students.  Every day and weekend was finished off with homework which helped cement the days knowledge. The course did a great job of covering the skills necessary to get a job.

I had a great three months and still catch up with other students.  Since the course my career has gone very well. GA helped provide connections and meeting with companies hiring as well as tips on how to write a cv, perform in an interview and negotiate salary. These all helped getting the first job.  Even better was that there was help and advice on hand at any point.  Even after graduating they were around to offer tips and help students change jobs if they needed. I’m on my second job and am continuing to progress.

The course changed my career and life and to pay back I go back regularly to talk to past students and to help out where I can.  I can highly recommend GA WDI in terms of the people, the instructors and the overall quality.

While I did the course I wrote a blog and have followed that up with regular posts about my career and where I have got to which might be interesting for future students: http://mikemjharris.tumblr.com/

 

Before attending General Assembly, I had applied to, interviewed with, and got accepted to several other bootcamps. They had distinct approaches to what they taught, how they taught it, and how they helped grads once the course was over. In the end, I chose to attend General Assembly because they were by far the most passionate about their mission of not only educating students and helping them find a job afterwards but also building a community that one can become a part of. The tech industry can sometimes be a lonely place, especially if one is coming from another career or is of a certain age. These obstacles are tackled by General Assembly, as they have the most diverse community of any school I researched. Everyone who works for the school is friendly, outgoing, and always available. They also do a fantastic job of making sure that those who attend their classes, workshops, and events will be open-minded and open-armed members of the community. I could not recommend General Assembly more highly and have sent many people I have met their way, whether it be for their short or immersive courses.

I currently work for a very prestigious software consultancy and I wouldn't be where I am now without the WDI course GA offers.

Bootcamp has been the best thing I have done for myself, it was tough, at times I didn't think I was cut out for it, but I enjoyed immensely every bit of it. In hindsight wouldn't change anything other than ensuring that I completed the whole of pre-work prior to the course. I had to have a lot of help from the instructors to make up for some gaps which wouldn't have been there otherwise.

At the end of the course, we showcased our final projects to potential employers at a dedicated event, where students were positively out-numbered. As a result of that, I had quite a few interviews and 3 job offers! I got to choose where to start my web development career. From what I understand the curriculum has evolved with heavier focus on JavaScript, which means that current grads are even better equipped for the jobs in the industry.

I have had a great start to my career and couldn't have done it without GA.

I am writing this review as a past student at GA, as well as a current instructor. I took a part-time front end development class at GA several years ago. I am a UX designer, and though I could hack together some code, I lacked a foundation of knowledge. The most valuable aspect of my time in this course was one-on-one time with the instructor - even if it was for a few minutes, I learned so many things that would be difficult to figure out from my own self-taught methods. That is the value that GA brings above all else- instructors who are day-to-day practicioners and can relay the most current and relevant information to their students.

As an instructor for the UX Design course, I have tried to apply this as much as possible. The curriculum sets a strong foundation to take skills into the world, but I can really see the magic happen with students when I show examples of my own work, or give them a tip that will instantly add tangible, practical skill to their toolset.

At GA, you get out what you put in. Those looking for a foundational knowledge of the topic will get it, and leave with a strong understanding of concepts, terminology, and processes. Students who want to take it a step further for a career change will have to put in more time, but will have the very best resources at their disposal to make it happen.

Having deciced to leave my previous job in Commodities Trading, it is fair to say I didn't fully know what to expect from my time as a WDI student. As it turned out it was initially tough, then much harder and finally, after a lot of hard work, incredibly rewarding! Without doubt, the best career decision I have ever made.

The course is called 'Immersive' for a good reason - you are thrown straight in at the deep end, smashing out code from day one and whilst it is initially quite overwealming, you find yourself week on week amazing yourself with how much you learn in such a short space of time. There is a heavy emphasis on 'job skills' over theory and abstract computer science which as a career changer, was exactly what I was hoping for.  

The standard of teaching is excellent - smart, confident industry professionals who know what life is like at the coal face of software development. I certainly wasn't 'top of the class' on the course, but there was always willing and friendly support on hand pretty much 24/7 to keep me on track. 

One of the best things about GA is the after course experience - you aren't just dumped in the job market and left to your own devices, rather there is dedicated team helping you along the way with interviews, CVs and setting up meetings with eager employers. My final project was impressive enough to get me my first front-end job with Penguin Books at a GA hiring event and since have worked for agencies, a fin-tech startup and today at a FTSE100 retailer, building complex webapps, handling literally millions of hits a day.

Coming up to three years on from graduation, I still stay in touch with a lot of my coursemates, tutors and the wider GA gang - I would, and have, wholeheartly recommend the WDI course to anyone wanting to fasttrack themselves into the world of web development!

I took the Web Development Immersive course in April 2014 and I can honestly say it completely changed my career and propsects for the better.

I came into the course with minimal coding knowledge (but did complete all of the pre-work assignments leading up to the course) and within 8 days of finishing WDI had found a job as a full-time web developer. Nearly two years on I'm still working as a Frontend Developer and have never been so excited about my future.

The course itself is intense to say the least, but you get out what you put in. If you want a surface level course that will go a an easy pace, this is not the one for you. But if you want to challenge yourself, learn true programming concepts that span multiple languages and are serious about becoming a web developer General Assembly's WDI course is a must.

General Assembly as a company are great too. They work hard to keep the community together and host parties every month for alumni, instructors, employees and prospective students. This means that you're not just thrown out into the big bad world after you finish the course. You've always got a strong community to integrate with.

Overall I can't speak highly enough of General Assembly. They've completely altered my career trajectory in a hugely positive way. I can now build experiences that anyone with an internet connection can use and all I need to do it is my laptop.