CareerFoundry

The course was informative and helpful overall. I did find it overpriced for what it is, and expected a more in-depth learning experience. A big downside to me was not having any idea about how other students were doing and therefore not being able to ‘chart’ my learning in comparison to peers. Likewise, the tutor’s feedback on my work had no score so I never really found out how good I was doing and how much better it could be. Each tutor has their own opinions as well, so obviously to get tasks approved it has to meet their standards or expectations, and not necessarily those which are universal. Coming from no background in design though, I did learn a lot. Of course, further research is required if you want to learn in more depth. Lesson tasks are not repeated (you do it once and are expected to learn it) and there doesn’t seem to be much of a flow between one lesson and the next. The last two achievements of the Immersion course felt random and didn’t connect to each other properly, and the lessons themselves weren’t thorough. I felt like some lessons in the Immersion course were wasted on irrelevant content, some could have been more properly explained, and others could have been combined to one lesson instead of two or three. Each exercise does show three examples of other students’ work for that lesson, which is a good guide if you didn’t really understand firsthand what is expected. Starting my first job soon, I don’t feel confident enough in my knowledge, especially since I won’t be working within a UX team but rather alone and am going to have to figure a lot out for myself. It was hard for me to find friends or students to keep in touch with from the slack channels, because everyone seems to keep to themselves and has not much interest in maintaining friendships or acquaintances. The slack career channels are a bit discouraging and all the channels in general are heavily monitored by the school admin, which in my opinion discourages communication between students. Of course, doing the course was useful to me. I finished it 3 weeks earlier than planned, and also got a job within two and a half weeks after graduating which is a very short time. I also got a big jump in salary from what I was earning in my previous line of work. The field is much more competitive and hard to get into than is first advertised by the school though, which comes as a big shock when you are knee deep in the course versus when you begin and have a lot of high hopes. The course does what it says but beware. A lot of the job postings are looking for people with a background in tech, design or psychology. None of which I have! They also take preference with those who have some kind of degree in those areas. It’s a highly competitive field and finding a job is no easy task.

I've been taking UX and UI courses with Careerfoundry for about a year now and I HIGHLY recommend it!. The curriculum is great, they cover a lot of ground and it is truly an immersive experience. It can get easy to get side tracked, so make sure you figure out a schedule as there are no due dates for course work but there is a time period which they expect you to complete the course in. The instructors were very helpful and gave me a lot of resources. I enjoy speaking to my mentors via skype and getting feedback for my portfolio and such. Worth it!! 

6 months ago, I was lost in my previous job experience and was looking for a change. I discovered UX Design and the CareerFoundry course that I managed to complete. In only 4 months, I have learn so much from both theory to practical skills. This course is super strong manly due to the great content it provides. But especially thanks to this learning by doing approach link with the relationship with a mentor and a tutor. Many thanks, I am really proud of this achievement and look forward my future career in the ux world. 

I have finished the UX Immersion course and want to share with you about the experience. I have only heard about UX design about a year ago, by accident. When I started the course I was totally clueless about design, technology or business. I guess I just needed to learn something new as even if my work was very rewarding I was feeling kind of stuck and without growing a lot. Anyway, I am so happy I enrolled for the course. It was difficult I must say, I was always googling new words and everything was so new and hard to integrate with my previous knowledge, probably because I had no previous knowledge on the subject. However, the course has a great structure, offers basic information but also links to more advanced knowledge if you want to dig deeper. The tasks are also very much hands-on - which is the best way of learning - through doing. My tutor and mentor were incredibly supportive along the way and sort of feeling sad upon completion that there is not going to be a weekly email exchange for too long now. I will miss it. The slack community is also so great and diverse. People from all over the world and from different work backgrounds discuss there so openly and friendly. Even alumni still hang around to offer support and guidance to current students or just participate in conversations - I really liked that. I think CF very much has a "family" feeling. The only thing I have struggled with was to respect the timeframes they advised. It always took me longer, maybe twice or three times longer if not even more. However, don't say I've said it, but I even got 2 free months extension to help me finish the curse in time. ;) Shhh...! (I don't really know how this works but it was great for me as a young mum on a support worker's wage) Please get in touch if you want to know any more details. I will be happy to share. You can find me on Twitter @andreea_nesu . Best to all! 

I started the UX design course in May.

So far I have been enjoying the course very much. It is well structured and students can learn UX design from scratch, no knowledge is needed before starting the course.

I would like to write down some pros and cons.

- Pros

The course is very flexible. Students can do this course either part-time or full-time. I think it is a great advantage for people who are students or have jobs. As I am a student and have a part-time job, I do this course part-time. Usually, I just submit two tasks per week and I am supposed to finish this course by the end of January.

My tutor is very dedicated and responds pretty quickly. Every time I submit my assignment, my tutor will decide to approve this or not and gives me detailed comments. I found this system very helpful.

The course structure is well thought and very practical. Students are supposed to design a web app for a portfolio. I am enjoying this process and found this very useful to find a job.

- Cons

The first half of this course seems to be too general. The course is for people who never learned anything about UX. So, for me, the beginning of this was too theoretical and not so interesting. It was a bit shame that I could not touch design tools until the middle of this course.

I don't know how to interact with my mentor and it is difficult to change a mentor. Aside from a tutor, students are paired with a mentor, who is supposed to support a student. But I don't know what to consult with my mentor as all I need to do is to proceed with the course...Also, although I wanted to change my mentor, it was not easy because all mentors and tutors are paired, so if you want to change a mentor, you need to change a tutor too.

I'm just over half way through the UX Design course and I am thoroughly enjoying my experience. The coursework is a great combination of readings and practical assignments, which I find very conducive to learning, and it is so rewarding to see my portfolio coming together. CareerFoundry did a great job of pairing me with a tutor and mentor that work well for me and keep me motivated and on track. The coursework is a lot but I'm learning so much - and the course is flexible enough that I'm set to graduate ahead of schedule!

I am currently halfway through the UX Designer program, and it's been very intense, and sometimes a little hard, but after each assignment in the Achievements, I feel like I'm building upon my knowledge. Then when I finish a whole Achievement, I'm shocked when I'm pulling together my portfolio for that Achievement by what I've accomplished.

I am just starting the Job Preparation course and that's been quite an eye opener in regards to learning how to organize my time with goals, create strategies for motivation, and even ways to stay positive while going through this career change. And that's above and beyond building my portfolio, writing my resume, learning how to articulate how to interview for UX Design positions with confidence, and even target employers and apply for positions I'm interested in.

My Tutor has been amazing at guiding me through each Achievement. Sometimes, I need to make corrections to an assignment, whether it's missing something or just needs tweaking. I'm given a clear direction on what I need to do. In the same regards with assignments that come back approved, she still gives me resources to further my knowledge.

I have only spoke with my Mentor once online, but she reviews my portfolio that I build at the end of each Achievement, and gives me amazing feedback. My Job Prep Career Specialist is guiding me through the whole process to prepare myself for this new career. I'm looking forward to working with her for mock interviews and having her teach me how to interview to GET that job I want.

I look forward to applying my user-centered approach, creativity and detail-oriented work ethic to make digital products easier and more intuitive to use, and I have CareerFoundry to thank for this. If you're looking into a career change, whether it's UX Design, UI Design, or Web Development, I can tell you with great confidence, you can't go wrong going through this program with Career Foundry!

I really enjoyed the course and the material. I thought it the UI course was very well structured giving you a good understanding of how everything is connected. The course also includes your basic UX as you will always come across that. 

I did the course fulltime in 4 months which is a good amount of time but it is still a tightly run ship. I worked as a designer beforehand so it was not all new stuff but I believe some prior experience is very helpful for the UI course. 

Something that is also very helpful is the online community which you stay part of afterwards. So there are plenty possibilities to ask questions or get support which is a lifesaver when changing jobs.

AtI'm currently enrolled in the UI Design course at CareerFoundry, and I'm almost halfway through. So far, it's been a very positive experience. Student advisors, tutors, mentors and fellow students respect each other and are very supportive and helpful. The lessons are interesting and suitable for people with or without previous knowledge or experience in, for example, graphic design. Instructions for tasks are clear and there is a step by step increase of complexity as the course continues. Fast feedback from my tutor and mentor lets me work on the course at my very own pace. There is only one real deadline, and that's the 6 month mark. By then, you have to be finished with every task and achievement. If you fail to do so, you can buy an extension to get more time. So it's really all about discipline and keeping yourself motivated.

At first, it looks like quite an investment. And it sure is! I thought about starting the course for a few weeks, before I finally made the decision to go for it. You invest in your future and skill set, so in contrast to going shopping and satisfying materialistic needs, you don't immediately get something in return. You'll have to be patient and willing to learn, and then, I'm sure, it'll pay off when you start a new and exciting career.

The Careerfoundry Programm is a good start into the world of UX! I really enjoy this course and that it offers the lectures in small chunks, while the work comes in small, doable tasks, but leads in the end to a good prototype that you can showcase in your portfolio. A lot of additional links are offered for more in depth reading and you'll have access to your course even when it finished, so it's always possible to come back and reread stuff. The mentors and tutors you get are super awesome, I have a very good connection with mine and they give valuable feedback on my work. The shared slack channel and the community are awesome! 

As a current student, I am halfway through my UX design course and have already learned so much. The way CareerFoundry structures the courses and breaks everything down into bite-sized tasks really helps me plan my week while maintaining my fulltime job. I just started the bonus job preparation course and I am already excited about the self-evaluation and portfolio help I will receive from professionals around the world. I am looking forward to the next half of the course load and what a future in UX hold for me and my family. - Plus I am having so much fun creating my first app!

What I like is how the course is built up, starting with the intro course and getting to know the overall process early on plus having an idea of what to expect later on with the immersion course. 

I was also pleased to see that there was a short section about design strategy, I understand this itself is a whole lesson but it was good to have an introduction to this. 

I noticed I did not use the right side menu options with mail, and help that much later on in the lesson, but asked all my help through Slack community, I would rather have quick access or an index to other lessons there.

Thank you to my tutor Thea who shared a lot of extra links with every assignment and my mentor Javier with all his knowledge and examples of real-life work and Emir for helping me to prepare for a job his knowledge and help was more than helpful. 

I would suggest this course to everyone interested in learning UX as it gives a good overview of the field and you finish by building your real-life project.