Avocademy

Avocademy has been a dream sent. It offered me the opportunity to learn more about UX/UI foundations before spending additional money on Career Jumpstart Program. By the of the Foundations part, I was so eagerly ready to start Career Jumpstart because my confidence grew and I believed that I could do it. I've researched lots of UX/UI Bootcamps and am glad that I chose this one. It pushes me to do more and exercise what I learned. Even though it is a self-paced course, it helped me identify if this career direction was truly what I wanted. So far I have established relationships that help make the program even more rewarding and an experience I won't forget. 

My experience with Avocademy has been all positive! In the beginning, I was a little iffy because they are one of the newer UX design bootcamps but I'm so happy I chose do to their bootcamp. The course is broken up into parts that make it so easy to learn and you get to go on your own pace. The unlimited mentor calls is what really helped me. No matter what my schedule was I could always find a mentor to help me with coursework. I also love that the course works on creating your first case study which really helped me learn what UX/UI is all about. This was the best decision I have met yet and glad I invested in myself with this program. Highly recommend! 

I had an overall really great experience with Career Jumpstart. The main motivator behind why I went with Avocademy over other programs was the price. Typically when something is significantly cheaper, it shows. But not with this program. I was able to learn so much as a designer and land my dream role. It definitely wasn't easy, especially working full time. But I am happy to finally be here after so much hard work. I never felt lost as I always had knowledgeable mentors helping and guiding me.

As a whole, Avocademy is a a great if not the best way to switch careers considering the price, mentorship, and content/curriculum. I found the education covered everything one would need to know to enter this field of work successfully.
The only concern was deadlines sometimes as often they had to be pushed back due to the time it took to get a submission reviewed, but 1. I wasn't in rush, 2. it was never longer than a few business days, 3. there were no consequences for not meeting original deadlines as they are accommodating and understanding, so it wasn't really an issue. 

Wow! I expected to be write this review but just not as quick as I am! Let me back track...I originally found Avocademy via Youtube. I was learning what UX design was and if it was something I was interested in because I was making a huge career switch. I just graduated with my master's in 2020 and was now deciding to go another route come Sept. 2021...I ended up doing Avocademy's Foundations course (which can be a whole other review in itself) and to make that long story short, I was beyond impressed with the knowledge and skill I got out of the course. When starting Foundations my initial thought was to use the course to test the waters instead of paying the 10k-12k at another bootcamp for the same experience. What I got from that first part of the course was beyond my expectation. There wasn't too many reviews at the time so I did feel like I was take a risk but after meeting with Maca I just felt the genuineness associated with the company and after my experience I can truly say that you get a quality experience! But anyways, that was foundation. When moving onto Career Jumpstart (CJ), it was around Nov/Dec 2021. I knew I want to go start into CJ because I wanted to add more project into my portfolio, work with teams, and get extra help in making sure things can be at their best (my resume, my portfolio, etc.). I was in CJ from Nov/Dec 2021 to May 2022. Within that time frame I established a great resume that highlighted my experience, worked on 2 real client projects with other students (as a team) in order to create final designs that can be added to my portfolio (so I ended up have 3 projects minimum on my portfolio in total - 1 from foundations course, 2 from CJ). I also received support from mentors and peers! I also made amazing friends along the way! After finishing my client projects, writing up those case study and getting prepped from job search it was already March 2022. I applied to ALOT of jobs ( ~200 applications, MANY rejections, and like 4 company interested in moving forward with interviews). By end of April 2022/early May 2022, I accepted a job offer. So in less than a year (8 months since Foundations Course and 6 months since CJ) I was able to land a job as a UX Designer. I would be lying if I said there were shed tears along the way, I mean making a big career change is hard!! But I'd do it all over again because I've learned so much out of this program and have grow personally for myself and professionally as a now UX Designer. Even the job I've accepted the offer from said it themselves that they were impressed with my work in my portfolio! So I just wanted to share my experience, I remember when I was looking for reviews and couldn't find anything when I first started so I hope this helps anyone that is reading this! 

The Avocademy Foundations program is great for anyone wanting to learn the fundamentals of UX/UI designs. The course takes about 6-8 weeks to finish (don't worry they give you extra time if you need it) and every module is very informative. There are mentors throughout the course to guide you and you can also have 1 on 1 mentor sessions. I tried self learning prior to signing up for the course, but had difficultly figuring out what to learn first and how I should be setting up my portfolio. I decided to look for a bootcamp to help me get started and all the other bootcamps that I found were a bit out of my budget. I found Avocademy and was a bit hesitant since they were still new compared to the other bootcamps, but I'm glad I went with them. By the end of the course you'll have one project and your portfolio set up. If you're a new grad or someone looking to transition into UX/UI from another field this is a great course.

Avocademy Foundations course was a great experience! The mentors were helpful throughout the program and you could schedule an appointment to have one on ones if you needed too. I thought the feedback I received during my module activities were fair and helpful. Sometimes getting activities passed through was a little slower than I hoped. However, I think with how they are growing it was to be expected, so it wasn't too big of a deal. I did the program while working full time during the day and I felt it was manageable to dedicate time to it. I'm now doing the Career Jumpstart Program offered through Avocademy as well. I felt like the information was valuable especially at the price it's offered. I would recommend the course to any newbie or even if you have a little bit of experience. 

The course is a decent value priced at $1500 and you can learn a lot, but not enough to score a good job unless you have previous design experience.
Most of the "mentors" are people without experience who just graduated from Avocademy and are on a job hunt.
The curriculum is 98% links from other FREE resources online + random Youtube videos.
It is a better value than some other $10000+ bootcamps but if you google "ux/ui" you will find the same links that are in the Avocademy curriculum for FREE!
There are plenty of free and paid mentorship platforms where at least you can learn from experienced UX designers and will cost you half the Avocademy price.
From my experience, getting a job without the Career Jumpstart (7% of 1yr salary) is hard and if you calculate 7% of the average UX pay in the US and add the $1500, it cost the same as bootcamp with legit mentors and curriculum.
Average Junior UX salary - $80928
7% of $80928 = 5664.96
UX Course $1500 + Careeer Jumpstart $5664.96 = $7164
$7505 CareerFoundry with job guarantee
$6749 Design Lab with job guarantee

Do your research before enrolling in any of the bootcamps.