Data Science Career Track

Pros:Mentor support, career services, job guarantee, curriculum content, flexibility.Cons:Curriculum deliveryThis was my second bootcamp experience, after having a misunderstanding about the job guarantee with the first one. Once I vetted Springboard's job guarantee, it was a no-brainer to sign up. At the time of this writing (March 2022) I had an option to pay only after I received a qualifying position, or else I wouldn't have to pay at all.The curriculum is outstanding for the small timeframe that it's delivered in. My only wish is that it was delivered in a different format so that I could have used my phone to work on it instead of having to be at my computer for it.The mentor experience and career services are absolutely top notch for Springboard. My wife had a baby in the middle of my cohort, and Springboard allowed my to pause for a very generous amount of time with 0 repercussions to the job guarantee or completion. I cannot put into words that amount of relief that washed over me once they gave me that option. Great overall experience, with small matters for improvement, but nothing that really detracts from the course. I definitely recommend Springboard to anyone looking to change careers.

I have a BS in Mechanical Engineering and 2 years of experience working as an engineer. I pursued this course full time, working approximately 30-50 hours a week towards it. I was able to complete the course with Advanced ML Specialization in 5 months. I now have a job as a Machine Learning Engineer, with a base salary that is 23% higher than my previous salary.I believe that this course is great for people who have a STEM degree and who have some technical work experience or technical project experience. If you do not have these things, I think it would be wiser to either pursue a technical degree or one of Springboard's other courses, such as their DA or DE courses. I rate the coursework three out of five stars. The structure of the coursework was immensely helpful in guiding my journey to learn the steps in the DS/ML workflow, and it kept me organized and disciplined in my studies. The early course material does a good job of explaining the basics of Python, SQL, and the DS workflow. However, the depth of the course material starts to lose its quality in the sections covering statistics, ML algorithms, and the specialization material. There are mini-projects related to the major algorithms (regression, classification, and clustering) and statistical concepts (CLT, AB tests, etc.), however, these sections sometimes skip over critical details that are commonly discussed in technical interviews (such as assumptions of linear regression). Additionally, the ML specialization did not provide projects related to the topics of deployment. Overall I would have liked to see more depth and detail in the later content. I will add that most of the content is either coursework on DataCamp or proprietary Jupyter Notebooks created by Springboard. Many of my peers agreed that the DataCamp coursework does not retain well since they are simple fill-in-the-blank exercises. The notebooks are more useful since they show practical examples of how an algorithm or concept would be applied, but overall the content has a perceived low value since the DataCamp membership can be had for a low price.The mentorship was also hit-or-miss. I was lucky to have a mentor with a background in statistics, so he was able to explain some of the advanced concepts that I really needed help with understanding. Some of my peers had mentors with backgrounds in MLE or analytics, and they were not of much use to my peers. Therefore I would say that the value of the mentor is dependent on luck.I believe that the true value of the course comes in career support, portfolio projects, and the alumni network. Springboard actually does a great job of aggregating good articles for how to pursue a career in DS, how to tailor your resume, and how to network. The career coaches are very experienced in recruiting and HR practices, so they give great advice when it comes to resume design and how to approach interviews. The course also includes mock interviews for behavioral, coding, project presentation, and general DS interviews, which are invaluable in preparing for real interviews.The portfolio projects are vital when it comes to catching the eyes of hiring managers, so I would recommend tailoring those to the companies you want to work for. Most of all, I found value in the alumni network. I was able to secure a couple of interviews easily because I reached out to Springboard alumni at companies that were hiring.I would recommend Springboard to anyone who is looking to change careers, but I would only recommend this DS course for individuals who have a technical background since companies typically look for some form of technical background for this type of role. As mentioned previously, I would recommend individuals with little to no background to pursue another path with a lower barrier to entry, such as Data Analytics or Data Engineering.

This program is a total waist of money. You can easily learn everything they teach you here and pay 1/6th of the price tag. ALL of the coding lessons come from data camp, so right there you can easily just pay for the data camp data science career track and you just saved yourself a pretty penny. Then they just copy and paste some web articles into the curriculum. Its absolutely ridiculous that you have to pay thousands more for data camp with a bunch of hype. I still haven't found a job and its been over 6 months because people don't take the career track as experience. My 'Mentors' didn't really teach me anything to be honest they just tell me to look stuff up online. Again this program is a joke and you are the punchline, don't be dumb enough to give scam artists your money. This program is exactly what it smells like a diploma mill churning out class after class of dumb sheep who are too embarrassed to admit they bought in to the lie. A total waist of time and money DO NOT BUY THIS COURSE !!

My experience with Springboard's Data Science Career Track was excellent.  The curriculum was up to date, detailed, and relevant.  There was a good balance between guided work and individual projects.  My mentor and career coach both helped me tremendously and were very flexible when trying to schedule calls after work or on weekends.  I would recommend this course to anyone interested in Data Science.

SpringBoard is the best schooling experience I have ever had. I learned more in the last 6-8 months than I did over 4 years of university. The curriculum is extensive and thorough, the mentors are extremely helpful (I cannot recommend Ben or DJ highly enough),  and they provide so many opportunities for additional learning. In addition, it was refreshing to be a part of a learning environment that was so accommodating and tailored to suit every students' learning styles. Rather than having students memorizing a bunch of facts then regurgitating it all on a test like traditional schools, SpringBoard takes a hands-on project-based learning approach where a student's success is measured by the quality of their work rather than grades. This program doesn't just help you develop the technical tools , but it also prepares you for all things career-related. Overall, this is the most comprehensive educational platform I have ever found and is guaranteed to put you on track for a successful career.

I was in the Data Science Career Track course. This course was a bit expensive, but I was motivated by the job guarantee, and that a data science job would help me to afford the loan payments at the end of the course. I was able to get a job the month before I completed the course! I am making $78,000 at my entry level Data Science position in Texas.I was applying for Data Science jobs since before starting the course, and as I progressed I saw improvements in my applications. Having the Career Service advisor's help looking over my resume and LinkedIn. After 2 months I began receiving skill assessments from my applications, 3-4 months in the course I was finally getting into the first round of interviews, and after 6 months I was getting call backs for 2nd round interviews. The assignments early on prepared me very well for the skill assessments I was receiving. I applied to IBM for an entry level position early in the course, and I felt confident just from what I had done in preparation for the Guided Capstone (the first project SpringBoard has you work on). While I didn't pass this assessment it was good to see that what I was actively learning was something I was going to see out in the real world.  Now in my current job, I am already utilizing the skills I learned during this course at my job.The course however is tough to keep up with, and it did take me 8 months instead of the advertised 6. I felt like a lot of important information at the end was very glossed over, while the middle of the course had some very in-depth projects. I understand it's done this way on purpose so you can focus on your final project but I do wish there had been more information in times series, SQL, and tools we would likely be asked to use on the job (like Power BI, Tableau, etc.). My current job is very Excel heavy and using pivot tables, and a quick assignment covering some of the basic skills a we might use (beyond the normal basics) could prepare a new hire for success.

I am really satisfied with my Springboard experience. Access to on demand mentors every day if need be, while still working 1-on-1 with a Data Science professional once a week for assistance on capstone projects that help build up your resume. A lot of content, a lot of resources, career assistance, and a very welcoming community online willing to help each other out.  While it may not be the cheapest bootcamp, I feel that I have been set up for success in the future. I would recommend this course to anyone who is trying to break into the Data Science industry, or anyone who wants to increase their knowledge and build up their portfolio.

Extensive and intense curriculum. Surprisingly great mentors and career coaches as well. I would recommend this program to anyone looking for in-depth exposure to Data Science.

As someone who had no technical skills coming into the course, Springboard made learning easy and motivating. The curriculum was designed in a way to actively teach relevant technical skills and reinforce knowledge through projects. My mentor was amazing and helped me dive deeper into my learning by providing me industry level perspective and knowledge. My career coach helped me gain confidence and navigate the job market. The student support was very responsive to any questions or requests I had during the course. And, there was even 1:1 on demand mentor calls for when I was stuck on a project mid-week and wanted help before my weekly mentor call. Because of all the support and well-designed curriculum I was able to get a great job offer quickly despite having no work experience or previous technical knowledge! I am confident that the technical skills and statistical knowledge obtained in this course will set me up for success in my Data Science career. I highly recommend the course for anyone who is considering switching into Data Science!

Prior to springboard I have been getting tons of interviews with a wide range of companies for data science roles such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Hubspot but was unable to make it past the technical interview stage. Knowing that if I did things the same I could only expect the same result. I took the plunge and signed up for Springboard in order to quickly learn and develop the skills I needed to be a data scientist. I ended up securing a job 80% through the course and along the way had turned down dozens of interviews.

It is a great platform to be introduced to and learn the fundamentals of data sciencePros:The 1 to 1 Mentorshipthe 3 projects you get out of it are great for resume and githubflexibility and mentorshipsCons:The cost. Most material can be found for a cheaper price tag on Data Camp. You pay more for the mentorship than anything. if learning material is your goal, there are cheaper options out there.

Springboard is set up with an emphasis on mentorship. You have a data science mentor that you meet with weekly. You can also schedule meetings with other mentors if you have more questions that week. They have career mentors you can meet with whenever you would like. They also have excellent mentors for different types of interview trials (Behavioral, Coding, Data Science Project, and Data Science). Their actual curriculum is a mod-podge of college lecture videos, articles, DataCamps (from datacamp.com), and a few projects. It was laid out well, but at times felt like it could be a little bit more cohesive. I learned a lot, especially from the independent capstones. 

PROS:Comprehensive curriculumExposure to excellent analytical and predictive tools and projectsGreat support system from support staffHelpful office hoursFlexibility in course completionAwesome mentorship program including getting help from other mentors if neededCourse extension of up to two and a half months or so, if neededMultiple chances for retaking mock interviews in order to qualify for money-back guaranteeCONS:Always check to ensure some mentors actively participate in projects supervision

I could not be happier I chose Springboard for expanding my data science skills and kickstarting my career in the data industry. They provide lots of ways to support you including weekly mentor calls with an industry expert, career coach calls, access to student advisors and an online community on Slack, etc. There are also weekly office hours for asking your questions as well as learning about career advancement. You should however note that you will always be the main driving force behind your progress and all of this is not going to be helpful to you if you don't put in the hours to learn the material and make progress. The curriculum is great in my opinion as well and carefully put together.

Before the course I was self taught with Python. I did a project where I went scraped data but the project stopped since I didn't know how to analyze data. After taking this course I believe I have progressed greatly with my Python skills to the point where analyzing and modeling data is becoming second nature and a strong point of my skill set. Also, having a mentor was great because I was able to learn from well established data scientists.

It is a great place to get career support. Their career coaches will help you prepare yourself for the job market.

PROS: Totally online, great curriculum, expert mentorship, really helpful career coaching, and helpful events.CONS: Totally online, so the human element of learning and socializing while gaining skills isn’t there so much. It happens through Skype / Zoom / Slack, but if you want to have informal random chats with peers or mentors as you pass by them and everyone’s definitely at the same part of the curriculum, that won’t happen here.

While the technical data science curriculum with Springboard is outstanding by combining Datacamp with dozens of hand-selected resources online, there are endless resources online for learning the technical aspects of data science and machine learning. If you just want to learn the technical side of data science, just get a Datacamp membership.However, if you want to take your professional career to the next level, join Springboard. Weekly mentor calls hold you accountable with the curriculum, and the career coaches guide you through networking, polishing the LinkedIn profile, building a focused resume, and writing cover letters. Springboard is not the least expensive bootcamp out there, but the networking, mentoring, and career coaching resources more than make up for the cost. It's an incredible value given the opportunities for salary growth afterwards. 

Great experience. My mentor and career coach were extremely helpful and knowledgeable.

 Pros: Datacamp resource - I really liked in-browser coding paired with short lecture videos to be very effective to get practice with the key parts of data science problem solving. There were lots of practice exercises that helped give me a better understanding of the concepts. Mentorship - I really liked my mentor, he was very experienced and had lots of industry knowledge, and it was obvious he had a strong grasp of the subject matter. As a part of the curriculum you work on 2 Capstone projects, and several other ad-hoc projects with the guidance of your mentor. My mentor provided helpful feedback and advice for lot of the machine learning methods I tried and gave me a starting point to work on the project. Cons: Many parts of Springboard curriculum is just reading articles on data science or youtube recordings which can be find online. The video/audio quality was not the best. I think it would have been much better for Springboard to make some videos covering perhaps similar material but improve audio and video quality and create a more cohesive curriculum instead of many seemingly unrelated videos. Also, none of the assignments have answer keys provided to students, so there are not many ways to check your work. The machine learning unit's videos and assignments are almost entirely taken from a college class. The ad hoc projects were useful to get practical examples to refer to, but a few lectures from the class did not feel adequately sufficient to develop a good understanding of machine learning concepts and AI techniques.