Cybersecurity Bootcamp

I thoroughly enjoyed my cybersecurity bootcamp experience with QuickStart. The instructors were invested in my success....ensuring I understood the material being presented as well as offering real-world experience.  Pervaish, Khan Kasi, my advisor, was very attentive and responsive from the beginning until successfully completing the bootcamp.    I am happy to say that I recently passed the Comptia Security+ Exam.

Don't believe the hype people, do your research and due diligence on this organization because they will scam you!  They advertise as being directly associated with your local College, but I assure you they are NOT!  I contacted the college and they told me directly that Quickstart pays them to use their name and that is the ONLY association they have with the school.  The school said that in now way do they sponsor or support Quickstart as far as course content, certifications, or responsibility.  Again, Quickstart pays colleges around the country to use their name and their name ONLY.  Do your research; call the college they claim to represent and they will tell you.Do they provide Cybersecurity classes?  Yes - However, the classes are high disorganized, they provide NO "official" text book study material for the exam, and they will only release learning material on a pre-determined schedule, which the live classes do not follow!  The live classes are purely review of the online learning modules that the organization provides, but the classes are rarely given in line with the times that the material is released for you to study.  The ONLY official learning material they provide by CompTIA are practice labs for Tech+ and Network+, which don't follow at all with what you're learning in class.  You have to figure the labs out completely on your own.  You can do purchase this stuff on your own for a lot less money and then use Professor Messer and UDEMY.   There are constant technical issues that prevent you from being able to access labs, materials, and submit projects.  This is supposedly a tech school, but they can't even figure out their own technology to run the program!Can the Quickstart classes lead to a CompTIA Security+ certification? Yes, if you're already pretty smart and already working the field.  The classes in themselves do provide some learning of Networking and Cybersecurity, if you previously knew nothing.  Is it enough to take a difficult exam?  HECK NO!  They try to ensure that you pass the exam by taking the last couple weeks of the course and doing nothing but going over test material.  So you're not paying to become a Cybersecurity Professional, as they advertise.  You're paying to learn a little bit about the IT world and to take a test prep class.  There are way cheaper and better ways of doing this.Will they provide employment assistance?  Yes, they do provide education on creating a resume, networking, creating a professional profile on LinkedIn.  Can you do this on your own?  Absolutely!  Will a legitimate college provide the exact same assistance?  ABSOLUTELY!  Every single college out there will do this, and not charge you extra for it.  This program is not worth $7k-$8k and once you pay Quickstart, they will under no circumstance refund your money, period.  Even the instructors admit to having been scammed and are regularly fighting to get paid by Quickstart.  I fell for this scam and I'm trying to help anyone out there to keep them from making the same expensive mistake!  Do your learning either on your own using other free or low cost materials you can find online, or find a legitimate program that is directly a part of an accredited college or university.  Then after you graduate, you can pay the few hundred dollars to take the CompTIA exam on your own and have a degree and a certification!  Not only that, but you'll have more in depth knowledge, in more areas to get more than just one certification, which most companies want you to have anyway.

I had a really good experience with the QuickStart Cybersecurity Bootcamp. The program helped me develop a strong understanding of cybersecurity fundamentals and provided a clearer understanding of how the field actually works. I liked that the course didn’t just focus on theory, but also introduced tools, real-world projects, and certification paths that people in the same career would use. The instructors were knowledgeable and did a good job explaining topics that can sometimes feel complicated when you're first learning them. I felt like the program gave me a clear direction on what I should study next and how to keep building my skills in cybersecurity. I also want to give a shout-out to my career advisor, Jessica Cavallaro. She was always helpful whenever I had questions about career paths or what steps I should take next. She really helped point me in the right direction and made the process feel less overwhelming. Overall, I would definitely recommend the QuickStart Cybersecurity Bootcamp to anyone looking to get started in cybersecurity or trying to figure out how to enter the field.

The bootcamp experience was overall good. The coursework was informative and easy to follow. There were no grades, instead we either passed or failed assignments. This made the coursework less stressful and more about learning. The bootcamp came with career services to help find a job upon completion. They were very helpful and gave helpful advice that was easy to apply. There were two career coaches that I had access to: one that specialized in resumes and interviews and a separate coach for everything else. One pitfall is that once I got my resume fully reviewed by the resume coach I was no longer able to schedule meetings with them.

I am a current student at QuickStart studying cybersecurity. Anything and everything tech/computer related is brand new to me. Absorbing all this new information is challenging but having the help from the QuickStart team, like my advisor Aly Lakhani, makes everything manageable. Although I take my time learning the content, my interests continues to peak and I am excited to see where this path will take me from a career aspect. I am grateful to the QuickStart team.

I believe most people that come across this course are looking for an opportunity to enter a field they haven’t dove into before. I was one of those people. Getting into cybersecurity can feel very overwhelming since there are many routes available and that can lead to feeling doubtful with the choice you make. I know I did. I doubted my ability to learn the material as well as the decision on choosing QuickStart to be my beginning point. But within the first weeks that doubt became confidence thanks to the teaching ability of Coach Mike as well as the support coming from my academic advisor Aly Lakhani. They both made it their goal for us to feel heard and dedicated time out of their days to have one-on-one meetings with me. Whenever I had a question or concern to address they were there. A big thank you to all the staff and the students I had the pleasure of sharing this experience with. I can proudly say I got the educational foundation I was looking for as well as a new circle of people I can confide in as I start my journey into cybersecurity. 

I can't thank Quick Start enough for guiding me through the incredible journey of earning my CompTIA Security+ certification. From day one, their support, resources, and expert guidance made all the difference. Their well-structured materials transformed cybersecurity from an overwhelming maze of protocols into an exciting puzzle to solve—one that felt achievable, no matter my starting point.
 Thanks to their help, I went from feeling like a confused intern staring at a firewall to confidently understanding security concepts. Their comprehensive resources, practice exams, and encouragement kept me motivated every step of the way, making even security protocols surprisingly engaging. Whether I needed clarification on acronyms or reassurance that I wasn’t drowning in technical jargon, they were there.
 Now, with my certification in hand, I can proudly say that Quick Start played a crucial role in leveling up my cybersecurity career. If you’re looking for a supportive, knowledgeable team that makes learning accessible and engaging—not an endless lecture hall—I highly recommend them!
—Danielle, QuickStart Cybersecurity Graduate

I am super satisfied with the people I met during the BootCamp, the content of the materials, the knowledge I gained, and the career services I got.Here I want to recognize the following: - The class's coach, Michael Garrett.- The career services team, Jessica Cavallaro, and Kevin Abidi.- QuickStart Support team Saeed Haque, Harris Junaidi, and all I have not mentioned.

To those seeking to start a new career and pivot into an exciting field of work, this program is an excellent immersive experience to get that chapter started. I learned all of the essentials to start my career and become certified in Cybersecurity. The program is encompassing enough that with a little extra effort, you can achieve the Security+ certification as well as Networks+ and CYSA+. We received real world experience in the form of career simulation projects that gave us a look at what day to day operations may look like. We experienced group collaboration and team building that would be essential to working on CS teams. Our instructor, Roger Nebel, was engaging, kind and sincere in teaching us all he knew. It truly helps to have instructors who seem to have a vested interest in your future. Furthermore, the program is not just didactic. They offer career services that help with resume building, networking with recruiters and companies, LinkedIn building, and interview preparation. Beyond this, they are extremely accommodating to your needs. I unfortunately had a health issue arise right after the bootcamp ended, and their support team was very understanding and realigned my timeline to meet my recovery needs. I cannot thank them enough for their continued support and interest in my future pursuits. Highly recommended!!

The concept of a bootcamp is often marketed as a fast-track solution, but success requires dedication and hard work. The Cybersecurity bootcamp, in particular, is geared toward preparing students for the Security+ certification and assumes you have at least a novice-level understanding of technology and computing. While the classes are well-paced, they demand a significant commitment beyond the scheduled sessions, including extensive independent research for your projects. As expected, the bootcamp progresses rapidly, so establishing a consistent study routine is crucial to avoid feeling overwhelmed once it concludes.Beyond the class the Career services and Advisors were quick to answer questions, give feedback and overall keep me polished.  I had been out of a school environment for a long time and this bootcamp restructured me to advancing my career and education.  I look forward to being a shining example of success in a newly acquired career.

The staff and instructor are super and have helped me tremendously! I was experiencing some health issues and needed to change cohorts; the academic advisor, Aly, assisted and really helped me feel like I was a valued student. I appreciate the opportunity to be able to continue the bootcamp in the near future.

The course covered essential topics such as network security, penetration testing, and threat intelligence. The focus on hands-on labs was particularly helpful, as we got to use tools like Nmap, Kali Linux, Metasploit and Wireshark. The course itself was a lot to digest, but Instructor William Clark was awesome and made everything so easy. When it comes to career support, they offered excellent career services, including resume building and mock interviews. You have to put in the work, but they are there for you along the way. Gwen Gayhart is the best at what she does. She's really passionate about helping people get to where they want to be. If you have no prior knowledge, this bootcamp is for you.

Quick Start was a training program that I needed to push me. They never gave up on me, they worked with me so I could understand the terms, practices, and procedures, also how to apply them. They gave me all the tools I needed plus two vouchers after I completed the boot camp. My decision to join Quick Start was a great choice. Before I forget, my instructor is really good, he wasn't one of those who didn't care if you understood, he would ask us questions to make sure we understood. He never allowed us to go on even if we had to take a breather and come back, we did just that. This was an experience, no, a journey I never knew I could accomplish. If I had a choice again, Quick Start is where I'd be! Thank you Michael J

The support and academic team were great to assist me with any questions or challenges I faced and were extremely accommodating. The lectures are well paced and easy to understand, in addition this bootcamp offers labs which provides some hands-on experience. The coaches for my bootcamp was also excellent and supported me with lots of feedback and knowledge.

QuickStart's cybersecurity program was exactly as its name implied - it was a quick start!  Within the six-month program, I learned advanced security concepts for networks and devices.  I familiarized myself with multiple operating systems, and got to do lots of the cool stuff - hacking!I will say that six months simply is not enough time to learn everything.  The knowledge that I got from this program was really enough to learn how much I don't know.  But QuickStart gave me enough of a foundation that I am capable of carrying out my own cyber education from here on.  I know where to go and what to look for to find the answers to the questions I still have.  Something though that I think distinguishes QuickStart (it was my deciding factor when choosing between programs) is its career readiness.  The statistic that sold me was that 85% of graduates of the program receive a job offer in their respective fields within 90-180 days of their graduation.  After graduating, QuickStart follows up with knowledgeable career counselors and advice that is legitimately helpful.  While the program does have a pretty steep price (I considered this too!), I do think that it was worth the cost.  It includes the cost of the CompTIA certification of your choice after the program, and the skills you learn truly are invaluable.Having been through more educational programs than most (a Master's, Bachelor's, and two Associate's), I can say that this course was the most "bang for my buck."  Even a person coming in with no technological background can become a cyber professional very quickly.Thanks, QuickStart!

I wanted to express how thankful I am for this experience and opportunity. My career background was deeply rooted in Mortgage and underwriting. I took an interest in Cybersecurity late 2022 and it has been my passion every since. In the beginning of the bootcamp, it was challenging. I was not sure if I would be able to grasp it all. Once I learned what my interests and transferable skills were, the lessons and projects were less difficult. I had the opportunity to work with some amazing peers that took the time to work on projects with me. Towards the end of the bootcamp students were able to work with career advisors to perfect their LinkedIn and resume. Honestly, landing a job has been the most difficult part. Your mind is fresh with a new set of skills and you are ready to put your experience to the test while gaining more knowledge. Trust the process and what you have learned with Quickstart Academy and you will be great!

“I highly recommend Quickstart boot camp for Cyber Security individual that wants to pursue a new career in the tech field.  Gwen has showed me the direction and guidance making that possible.  I now work as a cybersecurity professional for a large corporation thanks to Gwen and their team.”

I felt that if I had a more confident instructor I would have enjoyed the bootcamp a little more. There was several times where class was canceled, and students did not find out about this information until logging in to class. There was a whole class where the instructor didn't bother to login at all, so students focused on collaborating on a project instead. The course material was interesting, but in the end I feel as though it comes to no reward. I wish there was a deeper focus on student need and help with either gaining certifications or experience in the industry itself. I've seen other sessions with better instructors and it seemed that those subset of students had a better experience. I plan to use this experience as a base for seeking further education. 

All five of my rating categories being 5 stars is for a reason. My personal experience with QuickStart hasn't been a short one because occasionally staff and recruiters will still check up on me (that's impressive because it's been 2 years since I graduated).Curriculum: Jam packed curriculum that does contain everything you'll need for tests/exams. Not sure about you, but I'd rather have a boot camp that over informs me on the topic I'm preparing for.Instructors: I think my instructor's name was Bill. Phenomenal at what he does and an industry expert. So he gave us a heads up on when to look at certain topics and differentiate between an academia standpoint and then how it's done in practice throughout the industry.Job Assistance: I actually got my job halfway through the course before they officially started helping. I could put N/A for this portion but I put these projects from the boot camp in my resume and know I only got the position due to having taken this boot camp. It made finishing the course harder with a new job, but I did finish things out.Overall Experience: Typically the overall experience is an average of all other metrics and so this would naturally be a 5 star. I had some worries about how I'd pay for all this and chose one payment type, but that ended up being rough for my situation. QuickStart was actually willing to help me change back my payment method/plan to the one I should have done from the get go though so bonus points and kudos to them for being flexible. Note: I did not convince them to help me by yelling at them or acting like they owed it to me.Lastly, if you ever get to speak to Gwen, one of the recruiters, or Bill/William, one of the instructors, they are very valuable connections to have.

About me: I am absolutely an optimist and crave inspiration. I am in the construction industry looking to transition into the cyber realm. I have a career plan and I thought this would fast track me into a job with better pay doing work I am most interested in.Here is my experience:I saw an ad which exclaimed that the average salary of graduating students is $80,000. I was hooked, this is my way to find a bit of financial security and land a job with real potential and growth opportunities. So, I sign up to pay, for me, ~$8000 over a span of 6 months. Expensive? Maybe, but it will way off, literally, and I will delve into learning about cyber security and continue that growth when I land a job. But, You must know that not everyone who gets out of this program is applying as new into the cyber world. Some may already have a background and will more easily find a job with higher pay. For me, I do not have the most impressive resume, but I am trying to build it. I have been done with the program for a little over two months and have still not yet landed a job. I began by applying for jobs that sounded really cool and interesting, but have regressed to applying to any and every job I find all over the US many of which would either be the same pay or less than I am making now. I am finding that I will most likely need to get certified in Network+ and Security+ ($600) to not only (possibly) land a job, but to keep practicing what I've learned so I do not lose it because I work in an unrelated industry that takes a lot of my time. Know this, in the cyber world, you will need to continuously need to increase your knowledge, so getting these certs are just going to be a part of that process.The learning:As I have read in other reviews on here, yes, most of the learning is someone just reading off of a power point, and if you have a small screen, it is a horrible learning experience, so I bought larger monitors ($400). It is a cram session every time and not intuitive whatsoever. Along with this course I purchased other resources ($600), and watched free YouTube academies where teachers were much more practical, interesting, and engaging. When it came to the mentor who we met with twice a week, some days were better than others, but he seemed more interested in giving the answer than to engage in diving deep into cyber talk. Was told, "you don't need to worry about that right now" on a couple different occasions. I was under the impression that this would just make me really excited to learn and grow in cyber security, but ended up having to get my inspiration from outside resources.But you should also know that so much of cyber security entails the ability to do research and gain information from multiple resources, so me having to do that just worked that muscle and was a learning experience in itself, but regardless, if I am paying 8000$ I would hope to have an all inclusive and impressively engaging experience. On a positive note:The projects were fun and a bit difficult, but not too hard. I ended up making them more difficult than they needed to be thinking it was going to be more in depth. But this is also a learning experience, because there is no need to make the problem more difficult than it is. Also, it is crucial, as you grow in your cyber career to build a portfolio and these projects are something you can add to this.Job acquisition process: Both my career advisor and resume/job interview advisor have been engaging and have helped me put together a resume/LinkedIn page and provided many helpful resources. I have yet to acquire a job, but I will continue to stay positive and keep applying as it is not up to QuickStart to get me a job, but to get out there and keep trying, re-evaluate and try again.  For QuickStart:I would suggest having tests after each video which (for example) has the questions for the Network+ exam relatable to everything taught in the video. After the next video, having from the exam about what was taught in that video ad the preceding video as well. Repetition is key and keeps you thinking cohesively and reminding you how they connect. This will not only drill the knowledge in, but be rewarding to the student after they have just spent 1-2 hours trying to hold in all the necessary knowledge. Even more so, if possible, having the section/time stamp of the video on the question asked, so if you get the question wrong, you can re watch and remember what the answer is and how you get there. To me, because the test is 200 questions long and the knowledge is abundant, the learning process should be made as easy as possible. I would also have practice tests that you can study and review all the questions your have been reviewing throughout the module. And, if possible, monitor the exam so the students cannot look up answers during the exam. Make the tests difficult and the learning process engaging and easy, not easy tests and difficult learning process. This would provide you the opportunity to make the projects more complex and provide your course with more credibility allowing you to get students into those $80,000 salary jobs. If not that, since you do not receiving reputable certs for completing the Network+, Security+, Pentest+ etc. exams, maybe revamp the whole learning experience and just teach real world examples of which engage the learner having them virtually practice along with a teacher going through examples and have questions that reiterate what was learned. Keeping the student engaged should be the number one goal. Not getting them through the program where there is just so much knowledge given that there is no way it truly sticks.Also, I do not think that the teacher's face needs to be on the screen the whole time, it only makes seeing his/her screen more difficult. In the end, I try to learn from everything I do and I learned a lot and this has pushed me into another phase of my career path. But, as of now, and respectfully, as the course is, I would not recommend another to spend $8000 dollars of their hard earned money on it. That being said, I am very grateful for all the help provided and time spent by the mentor and advisors and I believe there is a lot of potential to the course.