University of Minnesota Boot Camps

Throughout the 24 weeks this bootcamp lasted, I had doubts on whether I would be able to complete it. I can say after that 24th week, I am glad I sticked to it.

I was interested in finding a new career path since I dropped out of college after my first year. I was studying computer science and it just was not fit for me. I started looking into cybersecurity more and was very interested in all the different paths you could follow. Through my employer, I looked at bootcamps they provided and found this cybersecurity bootcamp through the University of Minnesota. I read what the journey through the 24 week course looks like, and I decided to jump in for the long haul. My experience with this bootcamp was beyond phenomenal. From the instructor to the TA's, you could really tell they wanted every single student to succeed. I could tell it was just as hard for them as it was for us students, but the passion they poured into this course was amazing. One of my favorite aspects of this program was working with my peers to complete projects. It was awesome to see how easy it was to work with them and how friendly everyone was. If I had to give advice to future students, I would recommend to make connections in your class and work with each other, whether it's on the weekly assignments, or if it is on the projects you have to complete. Having those connections will improve your quality of life during this bootcamp, and can also be helpful after you finish. I will miss this bootcamp, it was a great course and taught me tons of information.  Read less

It's hard to believe that I am already halfway through The Full Stack Coding Boot Camp program! The journey so far has been nothing short of transformative, and I'm honored to share my experience.
The decision to pursue a career in coding wasn't an easy one, but it was undoubtedly one of the best choices I've made. Having recently graduated from the Data Analytics and Visualizations boot camp at this same prestigious university, I found myself at a crucial juncture. The fast-paced evolution of technology and my desire for a dynamic, challenging career led me to explore coding as a viable option. The Full Stack Coding Boot Camp stood out to me as a comprehensive and immersive program that aligned perfectly with my goals.
My experience with The Full Stack Coding Boot Camp has exceeded my expectations in many ways. The curriculum is not only relevant and up-to-date but also delivered in a way that fosters a supportive learning environment. The hands-on projects and collaborative nature of the program have been instrumental in solidifying my understanding of coding concepts. The mentors and instructors are incredibly knowledgeable and always ready to provide guidance, making the learning process both engaging and enjoyable.
One of my favorite aspects of the program is the emphasis on real-world applications. The practical skills I've gained, coupled with the simulated work environment, have significantly boosted my confidence in tackling coding challenges. The sense of accomplishment after completing each project is unparalleled, and it's these moments that make the program truly rewarding.
To prospective students considering The Full Stack Coding Boot Camp, my advice is to embrace the journey wholeheartedly. Be prepared to put in the effort, stay curious, and don't hesitate to seek help when needed. The coding community at the boot camp is incredibly supportive, and there's a wealth of resources available to ensure your success.

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The past three months have been both some of the most stressful but most rewarding of my life. I came into this Code Camp looking for something new and something challenging and I got exactly that and more. I made friends, I learned an awesome new skill and now I can take steps forward in my career as a developer. Our instructor was awesome and made things so light-hearted and fun, and our Teacher-Assistants were extremely diligent and helpful. They gave us so many resources to help us with our homework and general resources that will be helpful down the line. It was a tough experience but made so much more fun and rewarding from the support from the staff and the friends you make along the way. Read less

As a beginner to most of the concepts we covered, the sometimes challenging pacing of the program was nonetheless manageable and rich in content. Our program covered a wide range of topics, while providing hands-on experience that made the material feel thorough and not superficial. After I use the certification credit included in the program, I believe I will have a range of real experiences to discuss with future prospective employers.  Read less

Before deciding to take this program, I'd been dreaming about moving into the field of Cybersecurity for quite a few  years. The course exceeded all my expectations. I took the live online version. It's intense, covers all major segments of the industry, and it's very well-composed in a way that you really do gain knowledge, including very hands-on experience. There was a lot of homework (and I mean A LOT :)) I feel like during the six months in the Bootcamp I've learned more than I did  in college many years ago. My previous IT experience was somewhat useful to successfully get through the material, but interestingly, almost everything we learned was actually new to me. Those who were completely new to IT/Security also did very well in class, it was nice to see how fast the guys were becoming future security professionals. The main instructor was great! Very knowledgeable, helpful and friendly. The classes were never boring, very engaging.  The teaching assistants were also awesome, with different diverse experiences in the field. Super helpful and responsive.  Really enjoyed working on the four larger projects that you must finish to graduate. I even landed a good job in Cybersecurity before graduation. 
Definitely the best learning experience I've ever had. Highly recommended!   Read less

Great instructors, they gave myself and my group members support whenever we needed it. This bootcamp made me realize that I like doing UX/UI design, I'll be joining that bootcamp soon. My advice to a new student would be to USE A TUTOR, save up your money, sick time and vacation time before starting this program, you'll need it and be happy you did so. Everything was great except "Ask BCS" was not helpful. I tried "ask BCS" twice and they were uninterested in helping so I decided I wouldn't waste my time.  It did however help other students out. So, give it a try. Read less

I joined this program because I wanted to further expand my tech knowledge into cybersecurity and I didn't know how or where to begin. This program doesn't require having any cyber knowledge and it guided me from the very start. I can confidently say that I learned how to use various (ethical) hacking tools and even created my own hacking project for my final. 10/10 would recommend this boot camp to anyone that is looking where to start in cybersecurity. My instructor, Teaching Assistants, and Student Success Manager were all super helpful and very knowledgeable! Read less

I surprised myself to even enroll in school. I knew I was capable of so much more than just working a job, I wanted a career, but I didn't think I was good enough for school but look at me now, I did it. The journey wasn't easy, working fulltime and overtime but I pushed through and made it to the finish line.   Read less

I was looking and thinking of a new career, I wanted to follow my passion of creating and learning something new! I was already starting my path as a content creator and brand ambassador so the next logical step seemed to be a program that would guide and develop my skills- I was not prepared for in depth marketing is but I’m excited and love learning all the new things! My bootcamp has brought me together with some of the best people who cheer each other on, and we have such respect for each other! The staff is so amazing and although we got a new teacher mid way through, we didn’t miss a beat! We miss Taylor but they paired us with someone as amazing! If you are thinking about a new career, adding to your resume or looking to climb the next rung, this boot camp is for you!  Read less

I would like to start by saying, this course has been exactly what I didn't know I needed. I had left my previous employer and was looking to break into a field I had a passion for. When I went my own way, I was mindlessly scrolling through job boards for tech jobs. It seemed I'd never find something that I qualified for or was in a field I wanted to be in. I happened to come across the U of M Cyber Security Course, and I thought what the heck. Ever since, I have been building my repertoire and honing my skills. All of the staff have been extremely helpful in guiding me. It wasn't easy mind you, but it has been rewarding. It took dedication to better myself, and now I feel like I have a thousand possible options. It hasn't just been the course material either. The Career Services provided a foundation to be as appealing to employers as possible, now and for the future. My resume would never have looked as good as it does now with out the professional guidance I received, and don't even get me started on my LinkedIn. I am prepared to start a career in a field that I'm passionate about and I have the tools to succeed, thanks to the Cyber Security course offered my the University of Minnesota. Read less

I chose to move into UX Design after completing a freelance design job. I realized that while working on this project that I felt fulfilled and eager to keep working even after it was completed. I have never felt like that at a job before. 

I really enjoyed my boot camp experience, while it was difficult and frustrating times, it was exciting to see my knowledge and skill grow in real time. My favorite part of the boot camp was probably working in studio classes where we were split into groups and given design challenges that would be future portfolio pieces. During these studio classes we got to work with our classmates and really solidify our recently acquired skills together. 

If you are thinking about taking a boot camp, the advice I would give is to make sure you take care of yourself and give yourself grace. This is a difficult program and sometimes you will feel like putting the work off. But if you prepare yourself for the amount of work you are going to be doing, and continue that preparation throughout the course you'll do great! Read less

This course amazing to start cybersecurity field career for mee so excited to join , I was very  challenge and learning  the key   Successful keep the practice and get error to get better each day . I make this bootcamp I wanna to grow up on the career cybersecurity for mee interested learn more about how lading on this career. In general very good recommended university.  Read less

My name is Rachel and I am currently a U of M FinTech Boot Camp student.  I want to start my testimonial by stating that this program is one of the best programs I have taken in continuing professional studies.  It is challenging, but rewarding; it is time-consuming, but engaging; it is complex, but incredibly interesting, and I am in awe of how much I have learned and benefitted from this course.  The experience I have gained in this program has opened opportunities in my profession that I never thought I would be able to achieve, including a recent job offer as an Innovation Officer!

I currently work in bank regulation, and with the ever-changing digital landscape and constant buzzwords of “FinTech,” “cryptocurrency,” and “machine learning/artificial intelligence” I realized I didn’t know much about this innovation.  In order to keep up with the changes in bank technology, I needed an avenue to learn as much as I could about it.  I stumbled across the FinTech Boot Camp while I was searching for courses.  The curriculum was intimidating and the time commitment was significant, but I knew this was a topic I needed to dive into.  To be honest, I didn’t even know what Python programming was before I took this course!  Fast forward a few months, I can successfully code with Python, understand financial programming including the use of APIs, use machine learning to predict future outcomes, run artificial intelligence models, and I have even created a roboadvisor bot using AWS.
My favorite part of the program is the hands-on-learning.  The instructors are incredibly knowledgeable and flexible, and they help you to understand how these concepts are applied in real-life examples.  If you are in the financial services industry, this course is a MUST.  My advice to future prospective students is, as my instructor says, “Don’t mistake excitement for fear.”  This course can be intimidating at first and you’ll feel like you don’t know anything, which can be scary, but it’s actually very exciting.  It’s exciting to look at a huge block of complex code and realize that you will be able to write it in just a few months.  You’ll gain skills that are in high-demand and it will open opportunities for you to continue growing professionally.  I am looking forward to the rest of the program, and receiving the professional certification I can proudly put on my resume.  Read less

The course was conducted entirely via Zoom with a teacher and teacher assistants with a combination of lectures, real-life examples, demonstrations, and homework to complement skill cybersecurity skill development. The following is taken from the University of Minnesota Cybersecurity Boot Camp | St. Paul (umn.edu) website and I wanted to put it as the course contained exactly what they advertised. I had a wonderful experience and recommended it to anyone with drive and desire to get hands on cybersecurity skills to use in an existing job or move into a new career as I have done.

• Gain experience with a host of popular tools such as Wireshark, Kali Linux, Metasploit, Nessus, and more.
• Learn skills applicable to certifications such as the CompTIA Security+, Network+, Linux+, Server+, Cloud+, and Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH).
• Advance your skillset even if you’re currently employed or in school through convenient evening and weekend classes.
• Benefit from a comprehensive set of career services to help equip you for success as you work to change career paths or advance in your current position

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I am an IT professional with about 2 decade of experience. Most of my experience was in legacy technology and past 5 years I've been playing the role of Business Analyst. I was working for Delta Airlines in Minnesota campus. When COVID hit and impacted Airline business, the great company it is, with great leaders, we were offered voluntary packages to separate from the company with health insurance for a year. I took that opportunity to introspect my career path and retool myself. As I loved art, colors, and enjoyed hands-on problem solving, I decided to take the path of Web development and signed up for the Coding Bootcamp with  University of Minnesota.

The Fulltime coding program was a fast pace program. It was a fun, interesting and a challenging program. The instructor was very knowledgeable, humorous and made the learning process more fun and enjoyable. The TAs were also knowledgeable, encouraging and guided us throughout the program, even providing some weekend sessions from their personal time. 
I couldn't ask for more.

I didn't use the career service during the program. Now having completed the program, I am fully focused on utilizing the all the help career service offers to guide me in job application, networking and landing in a job.

I am so glad I selected Coding Bootcamp with University of Minnesota. Heartfelt thanks to the Program and the Instructional Team. Read less

I would highly recommend this bootcamp to anyone wanting to learn and put in the time. I made lasting relationships with classmates that I will now carry through my career, as well as so many skills I never thought I could learn in a 6 month time period. It really gives you the tools to do so many things with your career or business.  Read less

Syria, 1997. My very first experience facing a PC. It was running on Windows 95, very slow, very noisy, and extremely magical. That was the moment when I said to my father "I will become a programmer". Then, life took me on a different path (financial pressure/survival mode) and I ended up working in the media field for +8 years. But that moment of love, at first sight, stayed with me and I had to remind myself that “IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO BECOME A CODER”.
Apart from the romantic reason behind my decision, there are of course many rational reasons that pushed me to join a Bootcamp. Here are a few: 

• Coding is a massive field full of opportunities and creativity
• Coders are highly required in the market and that’s not going to change anytime soon
• So many opportunities to work as a freelancer and/or work from home
• Coding is a continuous learning experience. It’s like taking your brain to the gym every day. (don’t forget to take your body to the gym too)
• If you do some coding and learn every day. Your only way is UP.

So, why a boot camp? After considering the main options (college/Bootcamp/solo-learning online), I decided that a Bootcamp is the perfect first step for changing careers. The amount of time and money spent on it is a total win when the result is:

• Understanding a wide range of topics that cover almost the full picture
• Finishing 3 major projects and many smaller ones (Big PLUS in your resume)
• So many support sources in addition to a very interactive class
• Interacting with professional coders and gaining insights from their work experience
• Coding with a group just like you would do in a company
• Many great career services that are available for the REST OF YOUR LIFE!!

And many other reasons that make the boot camp a very rich experience full of benefits.
If you decide to take this very exciting journey, here are a few things that I did before and during the course that I believe gave me a great push forward.

• Give yourself about a month to prepare. (mini-tutorials, youtube videos, HTML/CSS/JS basics, articles on problem solving/coding logic ...etc)
• Before the starting date, you will have a pre-work assigned to you, which is a collection of simple subjects and activities to warm up. Take it very seriously and give it an appropriate amount of time. It will give you a great push through the first month, and it will be too late to give up :) Now, your only option is SUCCESS!
• Get yourself a nice-looking journal and keep track of everything you learn on a daily basis, just a line or two on each new concept is enough. And keep some notes on any gaps/questions you have, to ask them during office hours. 
• Try to code/read as many examples as possible on every new concept you learn
• Connect with your classmates, do study groups, ask and try to answer questions. Those interactions are gold! Push yourself out even if you don’t feel like it.
• Never ever hesitate on asking questions. Never tell yourself “I think my question is very basic. I’ll keep my mouth shut and study more after class” this is your time to learn, not to be shy or surrender to self-doubt.
• If you remind yourself that this boot camp is the cornerstone of a new career, you will have more energy and appreciation for it than being in the classic student mentality of “I need to do my homework and pass.”

I still have a lot to say about my experience, but since I’m still halfway through, I’ll save the rest for another review after I cross the finish line.
Best of luck to everyone and BIG BIG shout out to the instructor Dan Mueller and the TA’s. 
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I highly recommend Trilogy’s U of MN Data Analytics & Visualization Boot Camp, but only if you are serious about wanting to learn!

If you are new to coding – plan on spending 10 – 20 hours per week on homework, studying and projects.

Did I learn a lot?

The first day of class, I didn’t know anything about coding – not a single line of python – didn’t even know what Git Bash was.

My final project was machine learning classifying SEC 10k Risk Factor text documents for a U of MN Professor. A side project I did on my own was scrapping 65k tweets and performing a sentiment analysis for a UNC Professor!

I learned a ton!

Be Prepared for Class:

Class is fast paced! Classes had two components, instructor led examples and student in-class activities. That was a combined 512 in-class activities in 6 months! The activities are where you really learn – it’s practicing what you were just taught and then getting immediate feedback on the right way to complete the activity!

We had 16 homework assignments and 3 projects. Every one of them was challenging and took hours to complete.

Positives:

Instructors: There were two cohorts that met on separate nights during the week and together on the weekends. The instructors would alternate for the combined Saturday class. Both of my instructors (Paul K and Madeleine F) were data scientists by day, very knowledgeable, approachable, and took time during office hours and throughout the week as time allowed to answer questions. Both on their own time would post relevant articles, job openings, and other resources for the students. If you have an opportunity to have Paul or Madeleine as an instructor don’t pass up the opportunity – I learned a ton!

We also had 4 great TAs – maybe our classes just got lucky…

Not a single person dropped out of the class – I think that had a lot to do with effective pre-screening and a staff that inspired us to be successful.

Surveys made a difference! Every week you are required to fill out a class survey. For the first 6 months, every week I responded – please give us a syllabus! Trilogy never gave us a syllabus, but our instructor finally started slacking out what we were going to be covering in the upcoming week. VERY HELPFUL! I saw this week on our class page that Trilogy posted a syllabus – what’s my point? I felt that they listened to student feedback and made incremental changes throughout the 6 months.

Class Videos – every class session is recorded so you can watch it later. The first few months I didn’t use it at all, but then class started getting more difficult and I referred to the videos quite a bit.

Negatives:

They didn’t provide a syllabus. This was frustrating because I wanted to spend time preparing at home so when I heard about a new function in class – it wouldn’t be the first time. They now provide a syllabus so where it was a negative for me, future students take advantage of this and study before class.

Career Services isn’t what I thought it was when I signed up, but it has been satisfactory after I adjusted my expectations. Career Services is meant to get you ‘interview ready’ – not to help you find a job; although I can tell they are even trying to change that a little bit with a Demo Days, marketing to local recruiters, etc.

What was most surprising?

How much we learned in such a short period of time. You won’t be an expert at any given language or library, but you will know how to find the answers to be successful at coding.

I was also (happily) surprised at how time was spent on html/css/JavaScript. When you think about it, we learned how to take huge data (millions of rows), visualize it with cool interactive visuals (look at https://github.com/d3/d3/wiki/Gallery to become inspired and excited) – so it only makes sense that we would want to learn how to make it easy for non-programming people to access! You will have enough knowledge by the end of the course to make any of the visuals you find on the d3 GitHub link!

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