Springboard

I had a great experience with Springboard and learned so much from my mentor and career coach.  I'd highly recommend this course to anyone looking to break into the field or looking to brush up on their skillset.  With the self-selected topics for capstones, you can begin to build your portfolio using the work you do in the course and get feedback on the work from someone in the industry.  Highly recommend Springboard!

Good course for someone who is new to Data Science.

The bootcamp was great! It's intense, but I feel a lot more confident entering the field. My background is in hospitality, so I was worried about starting a new career in design. However, between the mentors, career coaches, and projects, I feel ready to start my new career! I also enjoyed the Slack community. I was able to meet a lot of new people through an online study group which helped me to learn faster and feel connected. 

The one downside is that most of the curriculum is free online resources. It feels a little expensive when considering you can read most of the articles (and watch the videos) online for free. The main draw of Springboard is the mentors and the help with building your portfolio. 

Springboard’s Data Science Course is an intensive learning experience, designed to help who never had even basic coding experience nor data science experience enhance their skills and stay competitive in today’s data science job market.  Led by a mentor with experience in the field, you will learn cutting-edge concepts and techniques and then apply them immediately. By the program’s end, you will have the skills, experience, and confidence to accelerate your career progression. What You'll Accomplish Gain Data Science Experience: Master the analytics process to develop and test hypotheses, and build categorical and numerical data models. Learn How to use Python: Work with Python programming and packages to develop engaging visualizations and more. Develop an Outstanding Portfolio: Work on a portfolio project that demonstrates your new skills. Work with Industry Leaders:s Get immediate feedback and guidance from Instructors who work in the industry. 

I came from a sales background with little to know experience and I could not be happier with the experience I had with Springboard! The mentors and the career coaches were super helpful in making sure I paced myself throughout the course. The best part about it is that there was always someone that I could reach out to if I needed help. This includes alumni, mentors, or coaches. 

 I wanted to change career and industry for several years and I chose Springboard's Data Science Career Track to do so while I had just been laid off “thanks to” the Covid-19 and oil crises. Great timing for a career change, I know... 

I studied the Data Science curriculum, the Career curriculum, followed the great advice given by my Springboard Career Coach and my Springboard Mentor.  I did everything Springboard told me to do to become a successfull, skilled Data Scientist with a great professional network and high visibility. The results of all of that is I was hired as a Data Scientist on week 13 of the program in a certified "Great Place To Work!" international company,  which leads its industry in the US. 

 

Pros:

• 100% online curriculum with great resources and lectures from Harvard, Stanford...etc...  All interactions with advisors, mentors, coaches are online and on a flexible schedule.
• You'll get enrolled in DataCamp and have access to extra practice/project work to master your skills (Python, SQL, Pyspark, Github...). I love DataCamp and will remain a member. 
• You'll have access to LinkedIn learning, Medium, Towards Data Science.
• Weekly presentations (career sessions, business hour Q&A, guest presentation).
• Weekly meetings with your assigned mentor. You can schedule additional sessions if needed. 
• You can select your own career coach from a long list of Springboard career coaches (their background and skills are diverse which makes the coaching experience invaluable). I personally chose one career coach and followed up with him throughout the program. 
• You'll get to work on a lot of projects (40ish), 3 capstone projects to apply what you've learned and your work will be reviewed by TAs who have a great sense of humor.
• Springboard conference (Rise!) and seminars (wellness, career...) during which you can interact with fellow students, alumni, employers... etc...
• Because the program is online and always accessible you can do it in 6 months as planned or in 4 to 5 months. I am now on week 16 with 84% completed. It is really up to you. 
  
  

Cons: There are no cons as far as I am concerned however you need to know that the program requires drive and self-discipline because there is a lot to do and so little time... You'll get help and tips from your student advisor, the career services, your career coach, your mentor, the TAs, and even from other students. The bottom line is that you need to stay on task and have the time to work on your projects. 

The program is worth more than you pay for. There is a steep learning curve but it remains fun all the way and it works! If you are afraid of not 'being good enough', start with the Data Science Career Preparation which will give you a taste of the level of statistics and Python coding you need. It is only 4 week-long, about $500 which will be credited towards your Data Science Career Track tuition upon successfull completion.  

During my time at Springboard, I was very impressed with the comprehensiveness of the curriculum and the amount of information that is covered. But by far the best part of this bootcamp was the support. The mentors, career coaches, teacher assistants, and slack community made all the difference. I spent a lot of time looking through all the software engineering bootcamps, and this one is definitely the best one I found for the price.

This was a great prep course for a beginner with an intro level of prior experience. The material is vast but specific to the career track. It focuses more on practical application of skills within the business environment. 

Pros: 
I think they’ve done a great job of creating a support system to help you learn and grow as a designer. You have the mentors, your own mentor that you meet with weekly, as well as unlimited mentors that you can book a call with (although availability can be scarce) once a day. You have a handful of career coaches to help you with anything career-related. Then lastly, they’ve built an active Slack community where students support each other with testing/feedback and so on. 

Improvements:
What I think can be improved and what I did like about General Assembly’s program is that the students in the design and engineering tracks collaborate on a project together. I think it’s actually pretty important for designers to get that exposure because during the course the students are designing in a vacuum and that’s almost never the case.  

If anyone wants to chat about the experience in detail, as I know it can be a hefty investment, please feel free to reach out and email me at mel.c.duong@gmail.com. 

I completed the UI/UX career track, and I will say Springboard really exceeded my expectations. They made sure to set us up for the real world by providing career help. I would say the thing that helped me complete this course successfully was the mentor calls. 

I did the course full-time, as I was unemployed, and finished in 7 months.  I easily could have finished earlier but  took some time off due to illness. 
I took the Data Analytics career track.  The course was challenging but I really enjoyed it.  The 1:1 mentorship was awesome and I felt supported throughout the program.
The career services were excellent, throughout the course and I look forward to continuing that part until I find a job (6 months of career services are included after the end of the curriculum). I So overall it was well worth it and I would highly recommend it.

Great material and learning modules that help to solidify the information. If you know much about marketing there is some overlap of concepts that will be very useful to your knowledge base. Very helpful and educated mentors that are responsive and share their expertise with you. If you are interested to save $750 off your course, here is my referral code: https://www.springboard.com/invite/BFV78

I was looking for a professional course on Data Science to make my career transition and I found Springboard. I must say this Bootcamp is one of the best things that happened to me in this pandemic. 
The whole curriculum is designed very systematically. Though Data Science is a very vast domain but this course covers almost all topics,  right start from basic python, statistics, machine learning model, SQL, Pyspark etc.  There were many exercises given after every topic so that one can practically implement those concepts. Additionally, more than 30 mini projects and two capstone projects imprint every data science concept in your mind.
Career coaches helped me in all possible way to improve my visibility to recruiters. There were four Mock interviews at the end of the course which helped me to prepare for the actual interviews. 
Springboard Community channel and Weekly office hours were very informative. 

Last but not the least, MENTOR!  He was the backbone of this course. I was lucky that I got a great mentor. He was there with me at each and every stage of this course whether it was about exercises, mini-projects, final project or any other difficulties in the curriculum.  He always helped and motivated me to do the best in the course. 
Even after writing this much about the course, I am sure that I have missed many things. 
So in my opinion, if your looking for a good professional Data science course you must consider the Springboard. 

I really was impressed by the curation of the curriculum. My mentor was pivotal to my progression throughout the lessons and really helped me grow. I also got a lot out of the career counselors!

It took me 8 months to finish my course, and could have even taken longer since my last project took almost a month to complete. Overall I am happy with the course, it was a great learning experience and very convinient way to learn new skill. The best part about this program was having a mentor, a wokring profesional and exepert in the field, who helped me overcome any challenges that I ran into during my curriculum. Job support was nothing special, it is a 30min meeting with a career coach who talks about your resume and trys to give you tips when it comes to job search, something that hasn't proved useful in my case, and as much as their "advices" were adequate, they were not impresive or life changing. My career coach sesions didn't help me find a job or make any progress in that area, it was my persistancy and detemination, and strong personality that got me a job. All in all I recomend this course, but I would recommend Springboard to work on career service suport as well as student advising suport, since it is imposiible to get a hold of student advisors.

If you are not at the last month of the job search, everything is going well. At the last month, if you still apply and follow instructions of the career coach, and his/her strategies do not work out. They will try to find any reason to kick you out of the eligibility of job guarantee. I had frequently call with career coach every 2 weeks, as required, then the support team from Springboard reach out and said I'm not show up and do not meet their requirement. I had to show the email/proof that I had a call with the coach. The second time, after that 2 weeks, the team tried to kick me out again, say Hey, you had no-show call for coaching sessions 3 times, you will be kicked out of the job guarantee program. Again, I had to dig my Skype history of calls and show the proof with the calls for every 30 mins I had with the coaches. 
The third time, (this is when I have some weeks left on the gurantee program, while they have to refund me money if they cannot help me to have a job). I had a data analyst position with average income >10$/hour, which is mostly manual administration job, that is not apropriate to qualifying jobs that Springboards teach you, like SQL, coding, Python. I told them that and explain, but they said I don't know about that is qualify or not (so who knows?) because you already got a full time job, you have to report all the jobs that you have, event working as a cashier at mart (It's super weird, not listed on the policy). And the person that I reach out to explain, try to quarrel with me, not shout up, but interrupted and do not let me talk. Super weird again, If they want the program good and reach out to many people, they should have a better support team, listen to customers/students and give the solutions not by saying I don't know, that is my responsiblity, that's the other team decide. It shows to me the irresponsibility of the career support team, and make me so upset with the quality of their service, although I like the cirriculum and my technical coach a lot.

Springboard helped me learn new skills, and better prepare for a career in tech. The curriculum was packed full of relevant information, and modern content. Springboard as a whole is really supportive of their students, and willing to work with you. Springboard renewed my faith in tech ed companies through their intentionality, and grace. I am happy to have been a part of this community and thankful that Springboard exceeded my skeptical expectations. 

Pros: 1:1 Mentorship, Career Coaches, Industry Design Project (internship), Job guarantee (if you live near a metropolitan area)
Cons: Might not vibe well with your mentor - but that's ok! It's still a great learning experience and you learn a lot

I started Springboard's DSC track in June, 2020. Overall, I had good experience with it. The curriculum is very well designed. I definitely improved my data analytical skills after completion of the course. 

Going through Springboard was an incredible experience. The skills I've learned have prepared me completely for a full-time position as a Software Engineer and the mentorship provided was incredibly helpful. I'm very content with the result and for the price it's really no-brainer. That said, for those applying, make sure to start on algorithms and interview prep EARLY (first or second week). Doing that will help you pass technical interviews faster.