Springboard

Springboard's course materials (which were always engaging and diverse) along the mentor and career assets prepared me for the expectations of the UX/UI market and has made me of great value as designer in my first few contract jobs. Highly recommend this course for its hands-on and practical approach, and for the excellent support team! 

I appreciated that Springboard was so considerate of their students—offering pauses to accommodate varying work/life situations and always being willing to help out. The curriculum was engaging and Springboard does a great job overall of making students feel like they've grasped the material and have people to reach out to for support if needed. They also make sure you have the appropriate job materials in place (LinkedIn, resume, elevator pitch, web portfolio...) and have had a chance to practice mock interviews to prepare you for your job search. What I would offer for improvement would be the portrayal of the job guarantee. I think it would be great if Springboard was directly involved in connecting students with internships, relevant resources, or even potential employers based on their background, interests, and demonstrated success while working through the curriculum (the IDP project is good for the experience but not quite an internship). This would make the job guarantee more comprehensive and compelling.

I really loved the go at your own pace of Springboard. It was one of the main things that drew me towards this bootcamp. They do a wonderful job supporting you all the way through, but not too much if you don't want it. I personally like to figure things out myself more often than not. I felt supported, but not like anyone was over reaching. My only complaint is that I personally feel like some of the job guarantee requirements are a bit too much. But other than that, it was wonderful.  I would absolutely recommend the program to anyone looking to take a bootcamp.

I started out with the Intro to UX Design course then enrolled in the UX Design Career Track.  I was very pleased that they offered the short course first so I could get a feel for the curriculum and gauge if UX was going to be the best path for me.   The career track course was challenging and comprehensive.  Working with a mentor and real clients for the IDP project were both great experiences.  

Initially when I started researching boot camps and talking with friends, I wasn’t sure which career track is best for me till I found springboard. My decision to join Springboard was strictly based on how challenging it was, their one on one mentoring program and career coaches that are very unapologetically invested in fellows’s success.
I started as a prep student back in November 2020 and was admitted into the data science career track in January after I passed the exam. I finished the career track in July and got my certificate on August 4 2021. The entire journey was challenging but it built me and made me who I am today both in terms of attitude and data science.
I went really hard on myself because I was admitted into their job guarantee program and I didn’t want my money back, I wanted a better career that will allow me to do what I want. I took multiple breaks throughout the course to have fun and also raise money to pay for it. Springboard was understanding and worked with me every step of the way. My mentors offered excellent guidance and resources every week that helped me be successful. My career coaches helped me build confidence and learned how to network better which landed me a job a month after my graduation. 
Springboard built me, it took my terrible coding skills and transformed it and made me competitive in the job market. People say I am crazy because when I do something I do it with all my mind. I went all in for Springboard and the result was clear. You get what you put in. If you can’t challenge yourself or want to be challenged, I’m my opinion Springboard isn’t for you. Their job guarantee works  as I am an example. I built my first face recognition system in the fourth month of springboard, and 2+ Personal projects where I performed data analysis and built predict models. I found Springboard’s slack community help. I also used Stackoverflow and python libraries documentations. I have zero negative experience throughout the course, it was perfect for me. 

I really enjoyed the curriculum. It was helpful that I could check things off as I went and review items whenever I needed. I'm sure mentors can be hit or miss, but mine was great.

My journey as a springboard student was amazing it is one of the most simple and easy to understand course made for online ready to jump into the tech world and it has TA's and you have 1:1 mentor for your support plus career coaches who are always there to push and to help you land in job which is amazing .thank you Springboard for letting me a part of such a wonderful community and enhance my skill 

It took me almost a year to find the right bootcamp. I landed on Springboard and after some deliberation decided to go ahead with it as it was the only course I found that was online and fully self paced. It allowed me to maintain my current employment while I learned a new skill. 

Enrolling in Springboard's software engineering career track has been one of the best decisions of my life. I started with nothing and ended up doing four capstone projects which were completely designed and developed by me. I would recommend this course to anyone who wants a change in their career path. 

After doing a ton of research on UX bootcamps, I chose Springboard because it met the most criteria.  Overall, I am happy with the education I got from this program.  However, I was fortunate to be involved with 2 study groups of great individuals (one I was invited to, one I started) that met weekly for 1 hour on skype and were great about sharing resources.  I also had a good mentor that I got along well with, and began meeting with career coaches early and often.   

Pros of this program:
• The curriculum is well-structured and covers a wide expanse of UX methodology
• The program is set up to give you some breathing room - although it is structured for 9 months, it actually allows for almost 12 months to complete
• The mentoring and career coaching pieces are really valuable, and each student will have a unique mentor along with access to unlimited mentors
• Your student advisor will support and advocate for you
• I feel very confident in what I have learned and have gotten confirmation that I'm adding value to the company I'm working for now
• You will get out of this program what you are willing to put in - if you are smart and strategic about the methods you use and the work you make, it will work for you

Cons of this program:
• The impetus is totally on the student to be responsible for their own learning - if you are someone that needs a teacher to walk you through new ideas, tools, and techniques, this is not the program for you
• The estimated 17 hrs work/week is unrealistic if you are working full-time, have a family, or other life obligations beyond this program.  The program does work with you so you can complete, but it probably won't be in 9 months (think about this with your payment structure)
• There are some poorly structured deliverables that definitely feel like working harder, not smarter.  Look ahead at the curriculum, especially once you start putting together your case studies, and build toward your portfolio (not google documents).
• Some of the resources are outdated
• It can be difficult to find any available times to schedule meetings with career coaches and/or unlimited mentors

Springboard isn't perfect - nothing is.  However, though there is room for improvement, I feel good about my decision to complete this bootcamp and what I have to show for my time and learning.

Amazing Bootcamp, excellent curriculum and great mentor support.

 I had a very thorough learning experience with Springboard. They provided diverse content to prepare me for every aspect of the UX/UI career path with challenging projects. The unlimited mentorship meetings and Springboard staff were amazing guides along my learning journey. The curriculum was presented in an easy to follow program and I liked that it was also easy to go back to earlier content if I needed to review.  The only draw back is not having a classroom type environment but learning from home was much better for my complex schedule. 

Pros: a lot of resources: your weekly mentor, TA support live chat, TA email, on-demand mentor calls, office hours, and the slack community. All of these can be utilized for help to progress through the course. The course cover topics that other boot camps do not cover, such as data structures and algorithms, testing your code, git control, and more. A well-structured course with an excellent person who does the course videos, I found his voice to be pleasant to listen to and humorous sometimes. 

Cons: At the end of the course, if you're going for a job guarantee from the program, you're required to pass all 4 mock interviews and you're allowed 3 attempts each. I didn't find their resource to be that helpful in terms of preparing for the coding and whiteboard mock interviews. These are still doable but expect to do most of the heavy lifting yourself when it comes to doing the mock technical interviews. 

Had an overall great experience with Springboard.  My mentor did an excellent job of leading me through projects.  The career coaching was also great and gave me the advice and tools I needed to conduct a successful job search.  Though my experience was very positive, the program was difficult and took a lot of time, as should be expected for a boot camp.  

After taking the Introduction to Design course at Springboard, I became more familiar with the design process and learned how to use certain tools in Figma. A student will get 4 weekly mentor sessions. My mentor gave me realistic point of view and helpful feedbacks on my project for improvements. There are helpful documents and articles which you can learn the basics of User Interface elements. It provides the overview of the User Experience research. I really enjoyed the course and my sessions with my mentor. I highly recommend this course if you are unsure about where to go in terms of UX and UI design. 

Pros.
Complete course: its content covers the fundamentals of data wrangling, exploratory analysis, statistical inference, machine learning modelling and model permofmance evaluation among others. You also have the chance to go deeper into some of these topics with the help and support of your mentor.

Not only data science: Understanding and using data science techniques is not enough. This course also makes you focus in communicating your ideas in a clear and effective way. From the typical slide deck to a brief summary, you study different strategies to become a great communicator.

Support: It is mandatory to have one call with your mentor per week. Still your mentor also helps you via e-mail answering any question that arises during the course. You may also schedule more calls with your mentor when needed. There are also office hours and community blogs to discuss ideas and ask questions.

Experience: Lots of excercises and capstone projects that simulate real life situations in which yoy need to analyze data in order to make a prediction or find a solution to a business problem.

Career support: Lots of tips and strategies for you to have a great resume and succesfully find a job in data science.

Very intensive course: Be sure to have the time to fulfull all the requirements!.

GREAT EXPERIENCE.

Pros: 
Great introduction to data analysis. Felt like a got a good feel for the breadth and process.
My favorite part of the curriculum was the projects and real-life case studies. "Doing" facilitates learning so well.
Great mentorship program. Knowledgeable and helpful professionals.
It was helpful to having career coaches to motivate me to get my foot in the door for interviews.

Cons:
A good portion of the curriculum is directed elsewhere: Youtube videos, Datacamp, etc. I wondered at times if the curriculum was worth the thousands of dollars.
I had a couple of encounters with career coaches and student advisors that gave the impression of inflexibility. If I was going to graduate, it had to be their way, including all the busy work that I deemed unnecessary or unhelpful.

Overall, I enjoyed the program and learned a lot from it. And I can't complain: I'm a full-time data analyst!

The Springboard Data Science career track was a great course that helped me solidify my knowledge of data science and gave me the confidence to apply for data science positions.

The program was flexible which allowed me to complete the course while having to take care of a 4 month old baby. No other program gave. E that flexibility. The program also has great hands on learning material which helped me understand and practice the coding and data science process.

The career resources were very helpful. I’m a senior level professional and still found the job search information very helpful.

In my journey to learning data science I have taken a masters degree, online self learning and Springboard. If I could do it all over again, I would have take. Springboard first.

If it’s not obvious, I would highly recommend Springboard’s Data science career track to anyone who would like to transition to this field

I absolutely loved my time in this program for the Data Science Career Track. I feel confident in my ability to use what I have learned in my career and look forward to continuing from where I began at Springboard.

Springboard’s mentor and career coach program prepare you for being ready to work in the industry. They provide 1:1, individualized, feedback and support. They are highly knowledgeable which enhances the curriculum and your preparedness for entering the industry. 

Some programs have an industry design project where you can get experience in the field before completing. 

Although the curriculum is curated. Springboard does a good job of selecting content,  and providing additional membership only content including design challenges, instructional videos, and a subscription to Adobe XD or Sketch for the year.