Springboard

Springboard was a great overview to the UX design process. The curriculum was thorough and my mentor helped me to focus on what really matters based on his experience in the field. I work full time and have a family, so the course took me a little less than 4 months. For the $2000 I paid, I wish I had more than the one capstone project to add to my portfolio. I am thankful that I have access to the curriculum after the course is done so that I can go through the process for another project on my own. One suggestion I have is to facilitate relationships between non profits who need UX volunteer work and students, allowing for real-world projects and case studies. 

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o I completed my Bachelors, went directly into my Masters, but then was really struggling with landing a job. I was failing the technical interviews, and then a good friend of mine recommended Springboard.

I took the entrance exam (At the time it was timed exam with a few simple to moderate coding problems) and was accepted into the program.

In my first week I was assigned a mentor and introduced to all of the software / learning platforms.

The first month was centered around learning python, SQL, and completing a slew of DataCamp courses (You get a DataCamp membership with your Springboard course) that really prepare you for your big projects, the Capstone Projects.

You work with your mentor to choose your projects (The first one is intended for a simple but deep data set, a good example is the Capital Bikeshare dataset from the UCI Repository, feel free to checkout my github for an example Username: JonOrr . Meanwhile the second project requires a bit more data cleaning, think along the lines of a kaggle competition.) then you follow up through weekly calls that keep you on point.

Throughout the course you'll also learn how to better conduct your job search, interviews, and role targeting (Do you want to be a Data Engineer, Machine Learning Engineer, Data Scientist, Data Analyst, etc.). There is a job guarantee that gave me a lot of confidence while I was doing the course, it has a good amount of terms and conditions, but all of them are reasonable. They include but aren't limited to: Apply to 5 jobs a week, don't skip any interviews, etc. The career team works hard to make sure you get into a role that both fits your skill level, and your career goals. Let's say you want to be a Data Engineer and are quite suited to it, they won't push you to be a Data Analyst instead.

One month after the completion of my course I was offered a Data Scientist position with a competitive salary (going to keep the number confidential but it was strong) in one of the regions of my choice (You choose 2-3 regions at the start of the course, I chose: Boston & San Francisco) I could not be happier with my experience.

 

If you found my review helpful and decide to pursue a Springboard course please consider using the following referral link: https://www.springboard.com/invite/6HPPV

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The springboard UX Design online course is a cheap alternative to the in-person bootcamps. The course goes through the basics of UX design, allows students to complete 1 full project, and pairs students with mentors. Mentors are extremely knowledgeable and helpful and are well-connected in the industry. The project goes through the full UX design process, and gives you material to put onto your portfolio at the end of the course. The online forums, or community, is composed of fellow classmates who are available to give feedback and provide information or help.
The concept of UX design relies on obtaining feedback for any work you have created, and this is one area that Springboard struggles with. Students who have completed some work need to spend a lot of valuable time finding people to help them with things like surveys, interviews, user testing, card sorting. Additionally, some of the curriculum can be repetitive and overlapping.

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I attended the Springboard UX Design program from September 2017 to April 2018 and had a great experience. I initially started my course in 2016 for three months before pausing the program. Since that time the curriculum was significantly revamped for the better. The strongest aspect of the course are the mentors providing weekly coaching. I had three mentors throughout my Springboard courses, two of which had experience in the game development industry, which was important to me. One of my mentors did not have much experience in the industry and as a result I requested a change in mentors. This was the only negative experience I had with the course, and resulted in some duplicated work when I transitioned to my next mentor. Even though this mentor did not have game development experience, they had plenty of Fortune 500 UX knowledge and if my desired job was not so niche, I believe the mentor relationship would have been excellent.

The curriculum has a relatively short beginner's guide to UX concepts before introducing the capstone project. The capstone will take up most of your time, and all of the small assignments build to this final project. I felt like the training content (largely through Lynda videos) was applicable and engaging. It helped to apply the ideas from the video directly to my project as I took notes. Having a capstone to constantly build on while studying these concepts provided constant motivation. My mentor also helped take concepts and apply them to my project. I found it easy to speed through sections I was already well versed in, and enjoyed being able to take my time in sections that were new to me.

Overall, I'd recommend this program with the caveat that if your mentor doesn't feel right for you in your gut don't feel afraid to contact Springboard support immediately and talk it out with them. They are very responsive and immediately placed me with a mentor that fit my needs. I'm glad I learned the skills I did, and was able to create a professional portfolio from my learning experiences.

Something they don't mention in the on-boarding/ marketing material is that you also get a year's Lynda.com subscription with your Springboard course. This is a great resource to access if you have other disciplines you want to study.

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I completed the introduction to data science course in 3 months. The course used the R programming language and covered important skills required of data scientist. This included data wrangling, data visualizations, data story telling, probability and statistics, and machine learning. The course also provided career resources. The material in this course was good and I believe I learned a lot. There is also a capstone project you are required to complete. This is where you bring all the skills you learned together. 

The best part of the course was a mentor who’s is a professional data scientist where you get 1:1 calls once per week. You can chat about anything data science related. The mentor helps guide you and motivate you, especially on the capstone project.

All in all I thought the learning experience was really good. 

Pros:
1:1 mentor call
Capstone project
Learn r programming

Cons:
I wish some of the assignments where hands on (a lot where) but some were assigned through datacamp

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Pros

- Mentor was great. Really guided me and showed me how someone in the field thinks. Also put my name in at the start up that she works at and they hired me as a contractor!

-Lots of practice on the analytics side. I feel like I'm pretty knowledgeable now

-Mock interviews and career coaches, especially Allison, were great for preparing for interviews. 

Cons

-Was unemployed and finished in 4.5 months. I find it quite hard to believe someone can finish within 6 months with a full time job.

-Second half of course seemed disjointed and unfocused, though that could've been because of the track I chose. 

-They focus on us contacting random people on LinkedIn as a means of "growing our network", which in turn will allow us to get a job eventually. They don't really do much in terms of actually putting you in contact with people who are looking to hire or are open to meeting someone new to the field. 

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I really enjoyed Springboard's UX course. Over just a few months I learned the whole UX process from start to finish. The mentorship aspect is one thing that really set this program apart for me. It was great to have 1:1 time with a professional in this field. I also really liked that it was at my own pace, as I am already working full time as a UX designer and could only commit so many hours per week. Overall I highly recommend this course to anyone interested in UX.

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I had a fantastic experience with Springboard. I took their Introduction to Data Science course in fall of 2017 and their Data Science Career Track course in 2018.  The course was a great alternative to a fully immersive bootcamp, since I wanted something that allowed me to quickly learn the skills required for a Data Scientist while still being able to work my full time job. The course does require a lot of self-discipline in time management since you're working through everything online and there is a lot of material to get through. I ended up spending an average 10-20 hours per week working through the course material so that I could finish in 6 months. The biggest asset for me was the weekly meetings with my mentor. He was a huge help in making sure I understood the tutorials and assignments and he helped keep me accountable and on track.

If you are willing to put in the work and don't mind learning online in an isolated environment instead of in a classroom, I highly recommend Springboard. It was a lot of work, but ultimately worth it because I ended up landing my first job in data. 

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I signed up for this course after learning about UX and wanting to make a career change.  Ultimately I chose this school over others because of the access to mentors and flexibility to complete the coursework on my own time.  I was completely new to the field so I wanted mentors to help guide me.  Also I worked full time, so I didn't want to commit to a specific class time every week.  The overall course structure starts with a product idea that you create and walks you through the UX design process with the guidance of a mentor.  The actual course work is pretty much a compilation of videos and articles that are available publicly online.  For a beginner, it's nice that the course organizes the content appropriately.  I wish the time with the mentor was longer, because 30 minutes once a week comes and goes really fast!  It's important that you're mentor clearly understands what you want to get out of the course, that helps to determine how detailed they are in feedback.  Hallie was also an amazing student leader and Fabio & Emily were great as an additional resource in the weekly office hours.  You can check out videos on YouTube to see how office hours are structured.  I'm really glad I took this course as it helped me move from a job I didn't like in manufacturing to a product manager for a web development company!

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I'm very happy I took the Data Science career track, it landed me a job in 5 weeks, was very useful and very flexible.

PROS:
It's flexible, with all the contents online, so you can go at your own speed and take time off if needed.
The contents are complete and wide, well focused onto what the professional world looks for
There is a lot of support, from TAs, mentors, and career services. Always there when needed
The exercises are interesting, gaining good insight from real data

CONS:

If any, some lessons can be a bit tedious or feel that you already went over it before. But this was only like 3 times in 6 months.

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I started the course with absolutely zero knowledge of data science. I almost didn't even know what it's about it. In almsot a month I was at the point that I knew about Machine Learning techniques and I am so glad I took the course. Since it was online, I had to tune it to my own pace and I really enjoyed the learning process. I had previously taken courses from other online institutes (no names will be mentioned) but I had got nothing out of them sadly (truthfully). Good thing about Springboard is that it's a blend of online school with human interactions, office hourse, mentor calls, etc. that I guess is their winning card. 

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I really enjoyed my course with Springboard. Compared to other bootcamps/online courses I've done they really make an effort through the mentoring and support to genuinely help you get to where you want to be. In my case, I was familiar enough with most UX concepts but hadn't had many opportunities to put them into practice or demonstrate my skills, and wanted to move into UX design as a career.

To that end, the curriculum was less important to me than the opportunity to work on an end-to-end design project with mentor guidance, which I could then use to start a portfolio. So the capstone project was a perfect format to help me reach the main goals I set out to achieve when choosing a course, namely to feel more confident in my UX and visual design abilities, and to have a portfolio to share with employers. However, the learning material itself does give a good grounding in a broad range of UX concepts and skills, so if you're a beginner you'll definitely be sent down the right paths. There's a tonne of UX information out there online, but on the whole Springboard do a good job of bringing the basics together without getting you lost in the details.

I've just finished my course and haven't got to the point of applying for roles yet (I want to try and expand my portfolio a little further first), but I would definitely recommend the course to anyone looking to achieve what I have. I have no regrets about making the jump!

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"Springboard UX Design Course -  I loved it"

I really enjoyed the way Springboard structured the UX Design course. It was available where ever I was (with internet) and the support from my mentor was a HUGE BONUS!

. You definitely go through the process as a all rounded UX Designer, so you can start your career after. I would recomend it to any one. 

As a digital nomad I found this course very enjoyable!

The only cons I have would be the platform they use for students to learn. It could be improved so it works a bit more seamlessly

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I really enjoyed the way Springboard structured the UX Design course. They assign you with a suitable mentor  straightaway which i found to be a huge bonus. You definitely go through the  process  as a all rounded UX Designer so if your someone who doesn't know much about the research or testing side this course is very helpful!   The only cons I have would be the platform they use for students to learn. It could be improved so it works a bit more seamlessly  Read less

Springboard's UX Design course is an excellent introduction to the field of user experience. The curriculum, my wonderful mentor, and my project all worked in tandem to solidify my understanding of the general UX process, such as creating personas and conducting usability tests. It's also more affordable compared to many other bootcamps, which can cost thousands of dollars. Springboard is self-paced and has a monthly fee, so you can complete it earlier and pay less, which is what I did. My student advisor, Dave, was kind enough to help me determine how to reach my personal goal and spend what I could afford.

Although there is no job guarantee (apparently, a "UX Career Track" course was recently added for this purpose), the UX Design course helped me learn new skills and flesh out my existing portfolio. A lot of UX job ads specify that a UI background and/or HTML and CSS skills are required, which are areas where I currently lack proficiency. I'm hoping I'll eventually be able to get a stable UX job (perhaps after acquiring more technical knowledge) or apply my skill set to a similar field.

To summarize, I highly recommend Springboard if you want to understand the UX process as a whole, though you will benefit further if you already have front-end development experience.

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A great program with a job guarantee!  If you're self driven, this course will really jump-start your career in Data Science, or your money back!  The curriculum was challenging, but fair, and I was able to learn a lot in a short time.  The net result was being hired as a level II analyst (with no prior data analyst experience), which also resulted in a 30% increase in my salary!

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I've taken a UX design course with Springboard in the fall of 2018. I've chosen them for one on one weekly lessons with the mentors, working in the industry. The curriculum is pretty good, and there is always an awesome guy Andrew (I hope i haven't confused the name) on forum who always reacts to anything you post, so at least you are getting some reaction, which is nice. This being said, there is a lot of stuff you need to dig into yourself if you really want to get to the core of it. However, this course helped me understand what I am really interested in (UX) and what I am not too passionate about (UI). Overall, it has been great experience.

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I've taken a UX design course with Springboard in the fall of 2018. I've chosen them for one on one weekly lessons with the mentors, working in the industry. The curriculum is pretty good, and there is always an awesome guy Andrew (I hope i haven't confused the name) on forum who always reacts to anything you post, so at least you are getting some reaction, which is nice. This being said, there is a lot of stuff you need to dig into yourself if you really want to get to the core of it. However, this course helped me understand what I am really interested in (UX) and what I am not too passionate about (UI). Overall, it has been great experience.

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