Springboard

I had an amazing experience with Springboard.  The 1:1 Mentoring as well as Career Coaching was amazing.  Also I have not only a number of projects to put on my resume but a really design project that I completed with a team.  I would absolutely recommend to anyone looking to change careers!

Just to provide some background, I’m a former teacher of 11 years, hoping to make a career transition in data science/analytics.  I just recently completed Springboard’s Data Science Career Track certification program, and here are my pros and cons.

Pros:
- Being paired with an expert mentor for the entire duration of the course is incredibly helpful. My mentor pushed me to go deeper beyond the curriculum and helped my projects really shine. 
- This is my preference, but I appreciate the self-paced online nature of the program, as opposed to live lectures. There are numerous case studies throughout the program that give you a guided opportunity to practice what you just learned, which is really helpful.
- The two required capstone projects are great for your portfolio, and really help you see the data science life cycle from end to end.

Cons:
- The statistics curriculum is really lacking. Having no background in statistics, I found it hard to keep up with as they covered difficult topics superficially with speed. Part of the statistics curriculum is reading a book called “The Art of Statistics”. Unless you have prior background in statistics, this book is not easy to understand.
- The program does its best to cover many common machine learning algorithms, but they don’t really go into detail on how the algorithms work. You’ll watch some pre-recorded online lectures from Harvard, but it’s hard to learn from a one-off lecture without really building the fundamentals of how basic algorithms work. 

I am just beginning my job search, so I cannot speak to the quality of the job support.  From what I understand, you meet with a career coach biweekly to help you with your job search.  To qualify for the job guarantee, you need to apply to 4 jobs per week and make 7 networking connections per week and do 2 informational interviews per month.  They definitely emphasize networking as the main way to get your first job, as opposed to cold applications.

All in all, I definitely learned a lot from this program. If you are an independent learner and are OK with taking additional courses on statistics and ML after completion, I would definitely recommend this program.

I was a little skeptical at first but enrolling was smooth. I also attended the prep course which was free. 
- Pros: great support and curriculum/projects. I still look back at the projects after completion every time I need at work. 
- Cons: mentor matching (and hiring) need more work. I finally found the one I like after 3 tries. 
- Overall, it’s worth it!

I have a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and more than 10 years of experience as a senior engineer.  Before choosing Springboard I revied over 10 boot camps. However, I decided to choose them because they offered a job guarantee and have applicable content. Moreover, they did not offer an income share agreement. I could get a job offer one month before finishing the course. The projects were adjusted while I was in it to evolve with a lot of new skills. My mentor was professional in data analysis and every week he spent time to ensure I was understanding the concept and solving the problems. He always encouraged me to keep on the job when I was frustrated.Also, my advisor and career coach team was extremely supported me and fixed any issue I stuck on. I’d highly recommend this course to anyone trying to make the switch into tech.

I really enjoyed the self-paced model where I could go through the lessons at my own pace. I had been a web developer about a decade ago, and have enjoyed getting back into coding and learning some new skills. I have a friend that went through the program last year, has a great job today, and I'm excited about how Springboard will help me advance in my career!

Overall my experience with Springboard was great.
Pros:  You learn a lottt. They take you through the detailed process of UX. They have a great support system to help you with any challenge you may be facing as a student. One thing I realized with springboard is they are all about your success, they actually want you to succeed. With springboard it's not the money, its the value they get to add. My mentor was so instrumental to my growth as a designer. I learned emotional maturity as well during my weekly meetings with my mentor from the great advice she gave me. Trust me, emotional maturity is very important on your design journey.
Con: The program would most likely take more than six months. So Prepare your mind before you start, if you want to finish within 6months.

My experience with Springboard was very positive. The coursework gives you a solid foundation of what a career in data analytics entails. The mentor and job readiness experiences were the most invaluable aspects of the course. 

You're really doing it for the four major projects that are used to build up your final portfolio. You go through the full process of researching and planning and creating prototypes for mobile or web apps.  The final piece is more of a very short internship with a client and a team of fellow Springboard students. The rest of the course includes a decent amount of publicly available videos and articles and is pretty much entirely self-paced without any real deadlines.

Probably the best part of the course is the mentor program.  You're matched with a mentor who is currently working as a UX Designer who will help guide you with a 30 minute call each week.  I was fortunate enough to get a very enthusiastic mentor who gave a lot of feedback.  I can't stress enough how helpful it was to have someone with real-world experiences to discuss things with.

Your milage will vary based on how good you are at setting your own pace and deadlines and getting a good mentor.  I will also give Springboard credit for updating the curriculum and their extremely responsive and thorough customer service.  The do seem to be actively working to improve the experience (for this course at least).  Of my four star rating, one of them is entirely due to that.

A small caveat is that this course might be difficult for people who have never used any design programs (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.).  Any prior exposure to those goes a long way in making things easier.

I spent a year in the self-paced UX/UI design course. I choose springboard because they have a comprehensive curriculum, flexible payment plan, real-world project and 1-1 mentor. The curriculum provides great practice opportunities and freedom for me to work on projects I'm excited about. the IDP helped me build good teamwork experience and gain more insight into the UX work for start-ups. The Springboard is very responsive in the entire process. They gave me flexible breaks and helped me with mentor switch according to my need.

Pros:
Comprehensive curriculum, enough practice to build a diverse portfolio, a real-world project for real work practice, the springboard team is responsive and are flexible with adjustments according to my personal needs

Cons: 
The mentors come from diverse backgrounds with different levels of experience for mentorship. Besides working with the mentor, you have to push/work hard and be self-driven for how much you get from the course/mentor. Also, it's hard to build a solid connection with classmates.

I had never done a bootcamp course until Springboard and I really enjoyed it all, they gave a lot to read that was always interesting, nothing boring at all. My mentor was amazing and I enjoyed speaking to her about my projects and asking her anything. Only small detail that I didn't enjoy so much was their IDP but that depends on your client and your team members.

Despite holding diplomas in social science and graphic design (and not an undergraduate degree) which made me ineligible for the job guarantee, I have a lot of confidence after applying for completion and looking for my first UX job. Other than the first capstone project, projects were assigned and chosen by students, pushing us to think outside of what we're most comfortable with in designing. I work as a content operations administrator at my current company, and have collaborated with the UX team many times. I think a portion of the curriculum should have involved some form of shadowing, considering that imposter syndrome is much higher without an undergraduate degree in UX. While almost all that was taught was information readily available on the web, having the support of a mentor, career coaches and a student advisor all while learning on my own time while managing my busy lifestyle was helpful. As a last note, I wish I had paid everything up-front, as working full-time forced me to dedicate over a year to the "9-month" curriculum which definitely ate at my wallet. 

The Software Engineering Prep Course was excellent.  It was short, sweet and to the point.  I had 6 mentor calls, where we practiced algorithms.  My mentor was an active Software engineering manager.  He gave great insights into the type of methodologies managers like to see in applicants.  

With a plethora of online programs on tech courses, it's difficult to choose one, especially when you have to commit a considerable amount of time and money. I am glad that I chose Springboard. The courses were well organized, systematic, and easy to understand. It was clear that the team had put in a lot of thought and hard work into preparing the course materials. However, the most remarkable aspect of Springboard is that they give you unlimited opportunities for interacting with the mentors, career coaches, and alumni. And all of them are a pro in their respective fields. So if you are stuck at any topic, you can reach out to them and they will respond almost immediately. It gives you a feeling that you are actually in a classroom. And even after you have finished the course, you have access to career coaches to help you with your career search. Had a tough, but amazing learning experience at Springboard.

My experience with Springboard's Data Science Career Track was excellent.  The curriculum was up to date, detailed, and relevant.  There was a good balance between guided work and individual projects.  My mentor and career coach both helped me tremendously and were very flexible when trying to schedule calls after work or on weekends.  I would recommend this course to anyone interested in Data Science.

Springboard had an amazing UIUX career track program that I was able to find a job even before completing the program. The one to one mentor call is extremely help to navigate me through the program. All the curriculums are designed to prepare you to be job ready and help you transition into the new industry 

There was a problem. I wanted to become a coder. However, I didn't know the skills and knowledge necessary to do so. Springboard provided me with the solution to that. I was able to learn everything I needed to pursue this career.

The content can go out of date, but they're always working on updating parts of it. It's never a bad idea to learn how to find the new information on your own. The community is spectacular, and you'll have an entire team of support waiting to help you succeed.

I did quite a bit of research of the available options around UX/UI boot camps before I finally decided to go with Springboard and I am so happy with my choice. It's an amazing option for those who want to break into the UX/UI field because of their job guarantee, but I also really appreciated the fact that I could waive the guarantee and still take advantage of the curriculum. Springboard was particularly strong in terms of the depth and richness of it's curriculum and the amazing support available from both your mentor and student advisor.

The course do help to become a beginner in Data Analyst & with networking and career coaches you could land a job that can help strengthen your skills. If Data seems to fascinate you then this is the course for you.
The curriculum can be completed at your own pace with help of mentor calls available weekly & also on demand mentor calls for quick doubt clearance.

The course is effective enough, though some of the material is a touch outdated. It wasn't enough to affect me in a way that made me feel left in the dust, and their was enough practice and supplemental training to make it mostly a non-issue. The real shining pinnacle of this school is the support, which addressed every issue I brought up quickly and sincerely. My student advisor was attentive, my mentor was effective (practical, creative, and knowledgeable), and the support team was - surprise - actually supportive! If you want a bootcamp that both equips you with real skills and is managed by dope, real human beings, this is the place for you. There aren't enough stars I could give to recommend this course, and I am so excited about finding my new career path. I feel more than confident that I can hold my own in the industry :)

I had the opportunity to work with the Springboard stuff and community within their UX program. It was a fantastic program that really allowed me to gain industry knowledge and industry based skillsets and tools that I wouldn't have gotten from a master's program. I really loved the mentor calls, the curriculum, and how streamlined the program was to be. 

When I decided to choose between bootcamps, I was deciding between Springboard and CareerFoundry. At the end, I went for Springboard because of the IDP project which is a real client that students are able to work on! I have not seen this on any other bootcamp before.