Springboard

I would recommend Springboard to anyone looking for career transition/advancement who wants to keep an open schedule. If I had the choice again, I would absolutely choose Springboard over an in-person program. Having the whole course online meant I set my own pace of study and supplemented when I felt necessary. The course material itself is great, with a fair mix of hands-on exercises and video lectures. The curriculum is littered with mini-projects for students to practice their new skills further. The best part of the program for me was probably the mentor experience. The weekly meetings are opportunities to not just review your capstone projects, but to learn how to think like a professional. If you ever feel like you need more time to discuss something (and those half hour sessions can feel short), most mentors are available for messaging or possibly even extra sessions. One thing I really liked about the program was the heavy focus on building essential non-technical skills, like networking or storytelling. Thanks to the course material and the career coaches, by graduation, I really felt like I was ready to enter the job market.

Here are some changes to the curriculum I would recommend:
- Make mini-project reviews more important. While I talked to my mentor about some of them, I never saw a single review in writing. I think this would be a great opportunity to discuss theory and practice code reviews.
- Course material needs to be expanded in some key areas. 
      -Deployment was limited to one Github mini-project and a very high-level overview video. Graduating students should probably have some familiarity with Docker or other software for productionization.
      - Distributed computing was covered in just two sets of exercises. I'd prefer if there were not just more material on the subject, but some more discussion of the underlying theory.
      - While this may have been a result of me taking the "generalist" track, I felt the material on deep learning was way too light. We were given only one optional exercise that worked with Keras, despite it being the easiest major DL framework to learn and the least likely to be implemented at scale. Even some more optional reading material would have been nice. 
  
In conclusion: if you're a self-starter, someone who likes to set their own schedule and do some of their own research, then pick Springboard. Read less

Currently I'm pursuing their Data Science Career Track. These are my honest reviews about this whole course. I will summarize my experience with Springboard India in a precise manner --

Pros - There is not even one positive feature about this course.
Cons -
1. Course content is a complete crap and doesn't prepare one to become a data scientist. Its just a collation of free online videos and some DataCamp courses. They hardly have their own content.
2. There is no proper support from Technical Assistants.
3. No corrective action taken on the feedback given on course content.
4. No follow-up from anyone in springboard team on students's progress or any issues they face.
5. False promises were given while on-boarding to this course(which I realize now)
6. The course is not worth a penny for the exorbitant fees they charge.
7. The 1:1 mentor support is not at all useful.
9. Office hours are complete useless.
10. Career services are hopeless.

I regret my decision to opt for this course. I hope my reviews find useful to aspiring data scientists. Read less

Hi All,

I am a student of Springboard and sharing real experience with you.

First of all, you should know, Springboard is FAKEboard / FRAUDboard.

Please don't join this course by seeing high ratings, as we all know these ratings can be biased.
I have enrolled in Springboard India Data Science Career Track (DSC).

I was having lots of expectations with this course.
But these fraud people, provide you nothing but frustration.

Career Coach: No use
Mentors: No use [ Mentors are even not aware of the curriculum ]
Office Hours: No use [This is the most frustrating thing, any xyz will take the session, they don't care about what have learnt or learning, just will come and talk whatever they want]
Job Guarantee: It is the biggest lie

So, guys please please save your money.

Regards,
Subodh Kumar

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The program is well-designed and the pace is good for a 6-month course. The material is very well-selected with lots of real-world examples. The mini-projects are very helpful to learn the concept taught in the course. My mentor is very professional and very helpful along the way.  Read less

I started the course with no prior UX design experience (came from an Engineering background). It was everything I wanted and expected from an online course and curriculum. The modules were immersive, my mentor (and also the student advisor) was responsive and always had valuable and encouraging advice, and the projects have provided a great range of work for me to present in my portfolio (which Springboard also give comprehensive advice on, right down to the best hosting sites to use). 

The course was all-inclusive and I have found that since I have finished with it, I keep going back to certain sections and brushing up on knowledge (all the material is available permanently after completion).

I didn't fall within the requirements of the job guarantee (as I am based in London) but I was still given the option of completing the Industry Design Project, which was one of the best parts of the course for me - I worked with a startup company in America and worked on the research and design of a gardening app. 

Advice for prospective students - Use the mentor calls to get as much advice and information as you can, you'd be mentored by UX designers who have been in the industry for a long time and have a LOT of knowledge gold. Also, the Springboard community is another great feature, I didn't use this enough, but I understand how valuable it could be, to network and make accountability partnerships etc. especially if you live in America. Read less

Not only does Springboard nurture creative minds who want to learn and challenge themselves, they push you in ways that help you grow and allow you discover what areas you excel in. I hated research, or thought I did, until I got into Springboard’s UX course. There, I found out differently. And now I’m pursuing a career in UX Research. I’ve tried a couple of different UX boot camps. Springboard was the one that took care of me. They’ll take care of you too.  Read less

Springboard's UX career track curriculum is very well thought out. I found it was really helpful for people like me who don't have any technical background. Springboard gives you unlimited mentor calls. Career coach calls are also very helpful and they give you career coach consultation for 6 months after graduation. The mentors and career counselors are very knowledgable. Also, they have a slack channel for all the students and alumni to discuss any problem and get suggestions. Furthermore, student advisors and everyone from the support staff is great and very helpful, and timely in their responses. Springboard has all kinds of resources and they are super helpful.  My suggestion would be to take advantage of and utilize the resource as much as possible for the desired career. Read less

Springboard's curriculum is an expertly curated program that challenges students at every turn; however, the mentor support is a difference maker in student success.  The mentor is a guide and facilitator who provides key business and technical insight that connect class work to real life experience.  The career advisory team is also key in living up to that job guarantee.  The student who listens to career advisor advice is exponentially closer to landing that dream job.  The Springboard was a great learning experience that I would not hesitate to share with friends. Read less

It was a well organized program that gave me the necessary skills to work in the field of Data Science. Everything from the mentor help to the videos and resources were mostly easy to understand and easy to put to use in practice. One thing that could've been better was putting emphasis on material that was more important in the field of data science that prospective companies are looking for those with that specific skillset. Overall I couldn't be happier and Springboard has been able to get me truly excited for the field of data science Read less

I took the UX Design Career Track starting last August. I finished the course recently and came away extremely satisfied with my experience. My mentor was helpful, communicative, and provided great insight into the UX industry along the way. Overall, the course curriculum is challenging (in a good way) but really helps you understand every concept in detail. Springboard gives you provides an amazing support system with unlimited mentor calls, office hours, and a strong community of friendly UXers as well. The material is curated content from across the internet with mixed in mini learning courses throughout as well. I give the course a 10/10 and would recommend to anyone who is interested in switching careers to UX, beginner or intermediate. Read less

The greatest benefit of Springboard's Digital Marketing course is its flexibility, the mentorship and real world experience you can gain as part of the curriculum.
Every unit has assignments in which you can apply your learnings and then they reviewed by your individual mentor. My favourite part were definitely the weekly mentor calls that help you to stay on track with the course material and to get some real insights from an industry expert. 
As part of the curriculum you run some actual ad campaigns (FB, Google Ads) and have the option for additional certifications. 
Springboard's student advisor was always there to help with any questions I had. You can also book into career calls with several topics to work on. In general, I felt the whole team was very dedicated. 
In addition, they have a partnership with Google Ad Grant program through which you get paired with a non profit to execute a digital marketing strategy (with $10,000 budget for Google Ads). This was my favourite project! Read less

Overall great experience and learned a lot. The pros far outweigh the cons, but I want a balanced review so I pushed to write up both.

Pros:
Support. Best support of any program I've enrolled in. Hands down.

Mentorship. So helpful when you're stuck on something that's not easy to just Google. Also great to just get general direction, career advice, etc. You don't know what you don't know, but they do! Use them!

Projects. Some of the projects were fairly challenging , and I come from an applied math background. So I'd say don't be shy of some analysis, but they will definitely help you build the prerequisites necessary. They're also a great way to go back and relearn concepts you forget.

Capstone. The capstone is reasonable challenging and is based on metrics that you'd be judged on in the industry.

Cons:

Structure. This is subjective, but for me alternating between engineering and career modules made it difficult to just focus on the engineering tasks. I ended up taking an extended non-traditional path through the course.

Dependencies. This is more a knock on DataCamp, but I think Springboard's reliance on some of their courses isn't good. Depending on if you like DataCamp's style. For me, I don't like the restrictive step-by-step approach they take, and feels too copy-the-answer-here type of learning, which is slow and passive. Springboard makes up for it with a diverse array of content and Jupyter notebook based projects.

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I really enjoyed the program, and the mentor helped a lot during the whole time! I had an educational background in data science but I never had practical/industrial experiences before. Springboard's boot camp prepared me to be job-ready. Highly recommended for anyone who needs to gain experience as a real data scientist. Read less

Overall I've been very happy with the Springboard UX Design Career intensive! For the price it is a very thoughtfully structured and paced program to get theoretical and practical experience in this space, along with a lot of good person-to-person interaction.

Pros:
Works around your schedule - I was able to balance part time work + home life with this program
Dedicated mentor in UX space offering weekly and on demand feedback
Intelligently structured and organized - units plans make sense and are easy to follow
A robust remote community of active students and alumni to interact with
Get a job or your money back guarantee
Several weekly Zoom meetups for career advancement and curriculum assistance

Cons:
If you're not self-motivated it could be difficult to stay on task
Time estimates for completing units can sometimes be a little under
A base level of familiarity with the topic space and tools is critical - the program dives pretty quickly into some deep work Read less

At the point I decided to continue my career in the domain of Artificial Intelligence and Big data, I wasn't exactly sure what program would be suitable for me to kick start this transition. After some research I came across springboard and upon examination of the curriculum I knew it was the one.

Pros:
1:1 mentorship was incredible, I had 2 mentors during the course of my program. First was a senior data scientist and second was an entrepreneur building a big data driven business. Priceless learnings and insights

Comprehensive project structures

Cons:
Pretty $$$$
Not necessarily a con but curriculum is pretty heavy, must be super dedicated to the grind if you have a full time job.

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The UI/UX Career Track at Springboard is a 9 months part time course but allows you to do it at your own pace, and I've done it full-time in 3 months! The curriculum is abundant and in-depth. It builds you up step by step from a complete beginner (I'm from a HR background) to a junior designer with solid design knowledge and skills. The mentorship is definitely the most valuable part of the career track, as feedback and advice from an industry expert is 10 times more useful than working by yourself alone. Springboard has also created a welcoming community where students can help and learn from each other, with additional support from the student managers and career coaches. Now I'm ready to step into the real UX design world, and I'm really glad that I've chosen Springboard at the first place. Read less

The UX Design Career Track at Springboard is a great stepping stone for a career in user experience. 

One of the biggest benefits of the Springboard curriculum is having a mentor to help and guide you through the entire course and provide valuable feedback on along the way. The course load can a be a bit overwhelming at times if also working full-time while trying to complete it in the 6-month timeline given. Be sure to factor in extra the enxtension if this is the case. Having the job guarantee for after completion of the course is an extra bonus as well as having access to career coaches. I would highly recommend Springboard for anyone looking to enter the field of UX or just add to their skillset.  Read less

I did my UX Design Career track at Springboard. My background is in Motion Design so I did not have much background in UX design. The curriculum was to the point and covered all the important information needed to start me on my career path. The mentoring program was very useful and my mentor went above and beyond to answer all my questions and concerns about all topics. The career help with resume, LinkedIn, interviewing skills and portfolio design were also very helpful.  Read less

Joining Springboard was the best decision I ever made. It has a well structured curriculum and you are guided by the mentors and the career coaches in every step of the way. You need to be at a certain threshold with coding, statistics and Data science to get the most of this boot camp. The curriculum has to be followed up with research and self learning.  Read less