Avocademy

When I got an email from Google that they were offering a Bootcamp on UI/UX Design, I became fascinated. I signed up for BootCamp for $39 a month to learn a new profession in technology. It piqued my interest. It was difficult to follow from the get-go, but what was I expecting for $39 a month? As a result of pulling in information about UI/UX, I got more advertisements for it than a basketball player with open DM's. Avocademy was the one I noticed while browsing Tik Tok. The fun tik toks they make caught my attention due to my love of social media, not to mention the opportunity to speak with someone directly. My enrollment came after a few days of soul-searching and an email offering a payment plan directly through Avocademy. What a shock. Although I was overwhelmed not knowing what to expect, I have to give the mentors credit for holding my hand throughout the whole process. They helped me realize that they were committed to my success. Even though wireframes almost broke me, I now understood what they were, so it wasn't that bad. Let's not kid ourselves, every day wasn't sunshine and rainbows. There were times when I felt like I was in the midst of a storm, but eventually, I saw the rainbow. Since I've seen great results with Avocademy, I would highly recommend them to break into the tech field. I am currently working with clients. To better build our portfolio, they find real-life clients for us to work with. Having this experience has been really beneficial to me, and I can't wait to begin the interviewing process. I'll make an update, but I can't tell you how good this experience has been! It's been way too much to put on paper!  

 If you're thinking about transitioning into UX Design and really getting to know what it's like to work on projects within the industry, Career Jumpstart is for you! I chose Avocademy because of their affordability for my situation. You work on real projects with other companies and start-ups with other team members- it helped me get a really good idea of how I work with others and what a design process looks like in live time. The mentorship we receive is one of the biggest pluses of joining the program. Getting help from interview prep, portfolio presentation, or even just general questions I may have, I know that my mentors will be able to provide that support! Avocademy has a wonderful community and everyone is always uplifting each other. I know that I can reach out to someone or express my uncertainties and have someone immediately bring me back up and push me forward. As we all come from unconventional design backgrounds- if you're thinking about changing, do it! I landed my first UX job because of the support I was given at Avocademy and it's made me realize that UX is a great fit for me. 

I spent a few weeks researching UX/UI bootcamps - reading lots and lots of reviews and comparing costs, curriculum, support, etc. - before making my decision to join Avocademy. While the realistic price tag was a major sway in my decision, I feel like I still got the $15k experience. 

The course is designed so you create a mobile app from concept to prototype; an end-to-end design. The course layout walks you through the process step by step and makes it very simple to complete each task. There is a ton of explanation, especially in the beginning, which includes internal tutorial videos, as well as articles and other videos on related topics to help solidify the information. The mentors provided helpful feedback and were readily available. While I do wish there was a little less reading within the curriculum and a little more video explanation, I never felt lost or lacking direction with where to go or what needed to be done. 

One thing, in retrospect, that I really appreciate was that we completed our case study along the way, rather than waiting until our project was complete then going back to put it all together. Having the guidance and support for that part (the most important part that goes in your portfolio and helps you land a job!) was truly invaluable. My expectations were exceeded with Avocademy and I 100% recommend the UX/UI Foundations Bootcamp!

When I started looking for a career change in 2021, I found UX/UI Design and thought it would be a good fit for me. After researching tons of online courses and even colleges, I decided Avocademy seemed like something I could try for the price, and find out if it was really a good career direction for me.
What really attracted me was the unlimited mentorship, which I utilized during the foundations program. I sometimes met with mentors 3x a week when I needed help with the course work. 
What ended up loving most was the community that Avocademy creates. Having peers moving through life in a similar situation is grounding, and keeps you moving forward.

I'm really proud of the progress I've made in just a few months. I'm currently in their Career Jumpstart program getting ready to apply for jobs.

I'm going to be super honest here in this review. When I first heard about Avocademy, I wasn't exactly eager to join the program. It definitely piked my interest, but over the last year or so I've heard enough "enter the tech career of your dreams—no degree or coding—all for the low-low price of $10,000!" pitches to last a lifetime. I wasn't really buying it, especially since the program was relatively newer and I didn't have much knowledge about the UX/UI field in general. But, after a couple of months and some very frustrating happenings in my personal life, I decided to give it a go. Compared to all of the comparable "low-cost" programs out there, I honestly couldn't find anything that beat Avocademy's prices. So, I started the program. 

I personally love the layout of how Avocademy teaches UX/UI. I've still yet to hear of a program that teaches you this field in the way that they do (not saying it doesn't exist, I just haven't heard of it). You will basically walk through the entire process from start to finish, building the blocks as you go, and come out at the other end knowing significantly more than you would've thought (with something very cool to show for it). A necessary disclaimer, however, is that you will still have a lot of self-teaching to do when it comes to UX/UI software. There's just too many out there—you'll have the learn some tips and tricks and all that kind of on your own (talk to your mentors though, a lot have very helpful resources and tips). 

So, yeah! I learned everything now that I know about UX/UI because of Avo. I tried self-teaching with a free program and while yes, the information was there... it wasn't condensed into a format that was easy to follow or absorb. UX/UI is one of those things (IMO) that you need laid out in an organized, visual, curriculum or you'll end up floating out in the endless sea of online information about the field. Personally, I found Avocademy to be great and am grateful to myself for taking the leap and trying something new. It deserves to be said that no program is an all-encompassing magic button that'll make you an instant whiz at all things UX/UI. However, if you take advantage of all of the tutelage and resources given by the Avo team, you'll do well. If you have the dedication to learn and the willingness to practice, you'll do well. Learning UX/UI is a process but the Avocademy program made it feel like more of a fun one than something stressful, and for such a big career shift that's something I'm very grateful that this was my experience.

I couldn't recommend Avocademy enough! I tell my spouse at least once a week (or more) about how happy I am to have signed up with this program.

I chose Avocademy because it was an affordable UX bootcamp for me and the services they offered (especially the one-on-one mentorship) was unbeatable. From the resources, content, and feedback I received, I learned so much! The mentors are nice, approachable, and gave great feedback/advice. Before moving onto the next assignment, your work had to be approved by a mentor, which I liked, because I felt like I wasn't just being passed along. Someone actually cared about the work I did and wanted to help to make it better! Yes, sometimes it was frustrating because I would have to make multiple changes to my work due to different mentor feedback, but honestly, one mentor may have caught something another didn't, so it was nice to have that variation in feedback.

I am currently in career jumpstart and just started the job hunting process. It was great collaborating with team members to work on client projects and it gave a sense of "real-life" experience. Avocademy prepared me well for the job hunt (already on day 3: received multiple recruiter emails/calls and have interviews lined up). Maca is great to work with, she's super approachable and really cares about your success! 

Overall, Avocademy really did set me up for success and I couldn't be happier with this decision!

Avocademy has easily been a top 5 life decision thus far! During my senior year of college, I was still lost until I came across Avocademy, they saw my strengths and explained to me how I could utilize them as a designer. Completing the course was smooth and I felt like everything I needed to know as a beginner was there and easy to digest. The mentoring is top-notch and the student-specific feedback is one of the best features of the course. A year later, I secured a paid internship as a Product Design Intern and am incredibly thankful for Avocademy. This program completely readjusted the trajectory of my life, and my future, and most importantly I can comfortably say the future of my family is secure. 

So I just finished the job search part of Career Jumpstart or CJ at Avocademy. The overall process was fun, difficult at times, and such an amazing process overall. It's broken down into two parts: projects and job search.

Projects
So for this part they post projects for people to submit for and then connect you with other grads from Foundations on projects with real world stakeholders. You work as a team to complete projects to finish out your portfolio and sometimes can even lead a project later on. I worked on three projects which allowed me to get a greater feel for what it's like to work on a real design team and a real world project. It also helped me grow my UX/UXR skills and find an area of focus for my career search. Each project is different and can be something like a website evaluation and design recommendation to creating a brand new product from scratch. Now these projects can be intense at times, so I would strongly suggest doing one at a time at first. I did two projects at once because I wasn't working and it was fun but challenging at times due to the workload. Most people finish projects in about 2 months and then begin the job search portion which can last about 6 months but people have been finding jobs sooner.  Big takeaway for this part is to communicate with your team about your real world time constraints and things that come up. Communicate, communicate, communicate. 

Job Search
The second part is the job search and they help you with mentor calls to prep for interviews, resume reviews, how to work through design challenges, and more. There's also a weekly call for job seekers to talk about struggles and lessons learned which was super informative and encouraging. I applied to just shy of 130 jobs my first week (they tell you to apply to 160 in your first month) and I think it really is great advice. I started interviewing pretty soon after I started and just got a job at a great company that I'm super excited about. I had a number of years in the job market before this but I know a large part in what got me the job was what I learned from the projects I did. I was able to talk about how my experiences, good and bad, from those taught me things that would set me up for success as a researcher for the company.  I am incredibly grateful for Avocademy and CJ. 

Great program. Currently in my senior year of college as well as this program and was able to land a job 6 weeks before my college graduation. Worked on 3 projects over about a 4-6 month period with real clients as a UX designer with a team of other designers. This was combined with constant mentorship, design, portfolio and resume reviews, and they helped me redesign projects that I had completed at other UX design internships/jobs. Very lenient with me being in college and not being able to dedicate as many hours weekly. Landed an 85k job offer 3.5 weeks after I offically started the job search process. Mentors are amazing, the other designers are all in similar positions as you and many resources are provided to help you along. Would recommend this program and Avocademy Foundations to anyone! 

Overall, an amazing and positive experience with Avocademy and joining Career Jumpstart (CJ) afterwards. I don't think I would be able to land a job without CJ! The mentors are absolutely so helpful and Maca is incredible for providing the job support you are looking for. I love the CJ course because I had the opportunity to work on MULTIPLE real client work and in a team setting which helped continually build my UX/UI skills AND soft skills. Additionally, the CJ course offers mock interviews that I could schedule weekly to build my confidence during interviews and also resume and portfolio reviews. Honestly, this was the best decision and investment I have ever made and I am so incredibly happy that I chose Avocademy! I was able to find a job within 3 weeks after completing my portfolio in CJ. Highly HIGHLY recommend it!

This review was a long time coming, but I wanted to wait to write it until my first job offer came in - which I knew it eventually would. Avocademy is simply incredible. They have taken a process that can be so difficult (and by process I mean both UX and career pivots) and break it down into manageable steps. In doing this they have created a program where you really learn the ins and outs, become a top tier competitor in the UX job market, and truly become a designer. While the job search can be tolling, I was constantly praised for my expert work. In one interview, I was told to be proud of myself as I had been one of 20 interviewed in a pool of over 600 applicants. Avocademy is life changing, and I highly recommend it to anyone hoping to switch into UX Design.