Galvanize

"The curriculum does not matter. Your experience is dependent on the instructors"

- Michael Herman

 

Michael mentored me while I was still a student at Galvanize in the g8 cohort. This was before Galvanize hired him. After he was hired as the lead instructor for the g11 cohort he still mentored me and a number of other students in my cohort because g8's lead instructor was awful. I am not going to go into the minute details since he no longer works for Galvanize, but he rarely showed and when he did he hardly did any teaching.

Michael gave me my first paying freelance job and introduced me to the company that I now work at. He is the sole reason why I am a developer now, and he did not even teach me. Even though he has assured me that Galvanize is better at hiring instructors now, I urge you to only request his next cohort. 

Do your homework before you attend any bootcamp! 

Research the instructors. Find out who they are. Ask them why they are teaching. Visit a class and pay attention to the interaction between students and instructors. Ask the students how they are doing and what they are learning. 

Galvanize gets 1/5. Michael gets 5/5.

The time in the data science immersive was probably the most invigoring time of life

The instructor are very knowledgeable and know most use cases in a real job environment. We were taksed to do pair programming so you not only learned but got experienced and fluent in the topics learned. One area of improvement I'll say is we could learn more about the connection between linear algebra and certain techniques we're using. However, considering the width of  knowledge in data science and limited amount of time, they were already doing a great job and were knolwedged about the topics if you pick their brain. 

The "outcome" team were extremely helpful in every aspect of your job placement. From resume building, connection to placement and interview practice, they sort of guide you step by step and constantly having 1 on 1 times. This is an aspect of the program that I did not expect to learn and I think could be useful for the rest of my life.

Overall, if you're not treating this program as just another job training for higher salary but an introduction to your new passion, it worth every pennies. 

 

The heavily advertised (self reported) stats are not reflective of the current course or hiring environment. In 2016, it will take you 3+ months to land a job coming out of the program and a sizeable portion (think 30-50%) of your classmates will not have any job after 6 months.

The program has been myopically focused on generating more revenue (students), and devotes the bare minimum of resources to graduates. The core product of the program (getting someone a job) was never well developed, but because of Macro trends (Hot Tech Market and Data Science Buzz) this went unattended. Now the tide has gone out and this program is swimming naked.  Check your expectations … you won’t be hired by a prestigious company, have a strong brand or alumni community.

“Bad outcomes” as they are affectionately known, just don’t write posts like this – they still need the alleged connections and support of the program to get a job! The indifference the school has shown them has been shameful and prospective students deserve to know what they are getting into.

tldr: Galvanize is one of the better programs, it does a good job on the curriculum, but this model of education is still under development. Enroll in any Bootcamp at your own peril.

To management;  

There is a lack of Leadership, Vision and Passion in SF, you can tell the CEO works in another state.  Stop reading your own press releases about the future of education, and fix your product…  Reduce # of students going through the program, & focus on outcomes

The data science immersive program at galvanize was life changing and the best decision I ever made. I would not be in my current job or position in life without it. That said, you must have a solid background and be willing to push yourself to make the jump, and I may not recommend it to everyone. What follows is my story and some thoughts and recommendations.

Brief history

I was an electrical engineer working in product marketing. I was very comfortable coding in Python with a strong background in math and linear algebra. Through MOOCs, I'd also studied data science and machine learning at a preliminary level. After galvanize, I completed a one year statistics masters, during which I was hired as a data scientist at a tech startup in SF the summer after graduation. My entire job hunt from first application to signed offer took just over one month.

What to expect

Expect to spend your entire life (for three months) committed to learning this stuff. You will be pushed and it will be hard. It won't always be fun but the end result will be amazing and worth it. This program moves fast! Do all the prelimary assignments and pre-readings. Luckily me most, most topics were vaguely familiar. However, the days that were 100% brand new were rough. The program moves so quickly that you don't have time to review or learn slowly. This can snowball quickly for those with inadequate preparation.

The value

This program provides three key elements which are difficult (if not impossible) to find elsewhere. 1) great educational material. You don't just do projects, they teach you what you need to get into this field. 2) learn every tool. Data scientists use many tools and this program teaches you all the basics for the essential tools, which allows you master the ones you'll need later. 3) they'll teach you how to get a job. The whole point of all this is to land a great job as a data scientist and the program (and a strong network of alumi already working in the field) provides great resources for doing so.

Recommendation

Go into the program with a goal of what you want to get out of it. For me, I wanted to write professional quality Python code above all else. Hence, when I felt lost on a particular day I continued to improve my coding skills knowing I could review the material over the weekend or after the bootcamp. Decide beforehand where you want to be after the program, assess where your current abilities are, and pick the brains of your galvanize interviewers to make sure you can make the jump given what you currently know. For those that are ready, it's definitatly worth the time and money!

Galvanize's DSI is a very well-formulated intensive course of study, which provides students with as much of a launch toward an entry data science position as could be hoped for in a 12-week course. The instructors are knowledgeable and dedicated. The materials/exercises are well thought-out, and are clearly the result of testing and refinement. Most of all, Galvanize's business model ensures alignment of the student's interests with those of the company, and it shows. Galvanize gets more students (and income) by promoting the hiring rates and initial salaries of their graduates. To keep those numbers high, they do all that is reasonable to ensure student outcomes: they teach well, focus on most of the important data science fundamentals, provide instructive exercises, guidance on resume writing, job hunting, networking and salary negotiation. During the course of lectures instructors call out those key ideas that are likely to be brought up in interview questions. After the course's conclusion, an outcomes manager tracks student's progress in the job hunt/interview process, and provides guidance as needed/requested. I would readily give this program 5 stars, but the reality for my cohort was that the program was new to Seattle, and local industry was insufficiently familiar with what Galvanize was all about. As the result of some mis-alignment of skill sets sought* by interviewers participating in Hiring Day, fewer graduates than usual for, say, San Francisco, were hired as the result of that event. Following much deliberate outreach by Galvanize/Seattle, it is my hope, and expectation, that by this time local companies have a much better idea of what to expect from graduates, and that many more of those looking for people with DSI skill sets will now be aware of and participating in the program. * (Many might have been more interested in students graduating from the Full Stack program, for example.)

Instructors:
Pro: Liz Howard and Tyler Bettilyon are phenomenal instructors and people. Both of them are inredibly techinically proficient, friendly, inviting, and helpful. Liz in particular became a personal mentor to me throughout the program, making herself readily available for 1-on-1's with me where we'd talk about coding, navigating the tech scene, or my goals. Matt Williams, who joined our course halfway down the line, was also a great instructor who brought a lot to the table and was just as friendly.
Con: We had a total of 3 associate instructors leave in the middle of the course. While they were not aa crucial, it definitely felt weird. Also, I would have liked more accountability regarding finishing assignments. More often than not, assignments were given and eventaully reviewed but not followed up on whether or not we actually completed them.

Curriculum:
Good: People have gone to great lengths about thisThey actively look at what they should/shouldn't be teaching  and update it accordingly.
Con: Since they are always looking at ways to refine it, it is easy to feel short handed if the next cohort gets something added to the curriculum that you feel would have been beneficial for you to learn.

Job assistance:
Pro: Amazing. Michelle is a champ. She took the time to get to know me and what my strengths were and referred me to partner companies with positions I was a good fit for. I work at a company she referred me to and absolutely love it.
Con: Hiring day was a bust. I feel like a lot of the companies didn't know what they were coming to, some companies were there looking for android developers...? Not one person got hired or even interviewed by a company that came to our hiring day.

With all that being saidt, though I had some criticism to offer, the program was an incredible experience and two months after graduation am now employed as a developer in a company that I love working at. Deciding to apply to and attend Galvanize is arguably the most important decision I've made in my twenties. A potential issue I see in the future of Galvanize will be ensuring the quality of its instruction through out all of its campuses, which is now nearing ten total. Be sure to ask plenty of questions and even ask to meet with your areas instructors to talk bout the program. Best of luck!!!

Having been through the program, this is what I can say about it:

1. The material is cursory and enough to get past some interviews, but is not enough to a) get past tough ones b) get a really good job or c) be any good at this job when you get it without prior experience. Prior experience means: PhD in math/stats/physics or MS in stats or 5-10 years software development. It's just not going to happen from the Galvanize material. 

Suggestion: don't mislead students about standards and hiring quality. Be open that you have very few students who make it to Unicorns/FB/Google. 

2. Like from one, know that the standards at Galvanize are low. Looooooow. Low admission standards, low standards for passing "tests", low standards for projects. This means that there is extreme variance in outcomes - some students end up with 5+ offers making 200K+, some with 1 after six months of searching at 80K. Admittance \neq success. 

Suggestion for improvement: have higher standards OR push more folks towards the Masters program - make the immersive more selective. 

3. The material is a bit outdated but the sprints are usually fun. Lots of typos. 

Suggestion: have someone actually go through this material and fix typos. Make a single unified curriculum. 

4. The "DSR" role is really a bit of a joke. They seem to sit on their computers all day. I wish they were trained better. 

Suggestion: you don't need to many of these people. And train them better. 

5. The job assistance is very strong, but they have 2 (!! ) people for hundreds of students. Sad! They should double or triple the size of this team. 

Suggestion: clone Michelle and Ghazal x3 :) Or just get more career folks. This is the single most valuable resource Galvanize offers many people. Know that. 

6. Instructors are generally fine, but know that many of them have not worked as "real" data scientists or have for only a brief (~1 year) time period. I really like them and a few really stand out, but I wish they had more "on the job" experience overall. I mean, Zipfian was even founded by someone who never really worked as a data scientist. So what do you expect? 

Suggestion: try to hire instructors who are data scientists. Or have more lectures by people who are actively working. Maybe have lectures in the evening or morning and have working people give a week of them, or something. People who use this stuff every day or the best suited to teach it, imo.

7. I haven't started my job yet, but I worry that Galvanize did not prepare me to be in a "coding" environment. I wish the challenges were more like things we'd actually do on the job than Kaggle competitions. 

8. There is very little feedback on assignments. Like, nothing is graded or even assessed but the exams. What am I paying for if not assessment?? 

The feedback on case studies is also not great. Solutions presented that were called "great" would not get past the take home level for a company. (I know because I did the take home at several companies where we did mock take homes for. And didn't get through.)

9. Despite promises, there isn't a lot they do in terms of interview prep. Like you practice doing basic question etc., but for a course like this shouldn't they have a binder of questions other grads have received? Or have personalized feedback on practice take homes to learn what is actually being sought? 

The resources here were extremely lacking and nothing that couldn't be found online with some Googling and $20. 

tl;dr: In the long run, I don't think Galvanize really prepares you to get a good data science job, but it does serve as a useful credential for people who could get a ds job by just studying moocs etc. In that way, it's like Insight but without being elite and costing money. The connections made to companies are really useful, and it would be nice to have more of that. I think Galvanize would do well to make DSI more selective and push more people towards GU. Hiring instructors from industry would help. Having higher standards for sprints and case studies would help. Sharing examples of successul take homes for companies would help. Having a more unified set of practice interviews questions (which was promised and not delivered on) would help. 

Galvanize was an incredible experience. It seemed like a big risk, but it really paid off. The instructors were top notch PhD's from some of the biggest tech companies around. The curriculum is exhaustingly expansive​ and the job assistance is pretty good.

Depending on your past experience (PhD, Software enginer, recent grad) your job hunt could be wildly different than the rest of your cohort even if you have basically the same data science skillset. That being said, most people (from all backgrounds) I have seen go through the program (two cohorts) have landed awesome jobs, including me! It is a serious grind and Galvanize can only do so much, which is why I gave them 4 stars. 

Overall, I think it was well worth it. I had a great experience during the program and got my dream job! Can't complain about that. 

Galvanize Full Stack is a 24-week program teaches you how to make an impact as a contributing member of a development team. The program culminates on hiring day, where students meet potential employers, present projects, and show off everything they’ve learned.

Tyler and Liz of the galvanize SF web program are amazing instrutors, their dual-lecturing style of teaching really helped keep the topics intersting and entertaining. Both their personalities and knowlege base mesh extremely well together and helped me gain the knowlege I needed to be a successful software engineer in the industry out here in Silicon Valley. 

Michelle Lai and the Galvanize's outcomes team did a fantastic job of working with me and other students post graduation to create iron-clad resumes, portfolio websites, be prepped for the entire interview process, and finally negotiate a competitive salary upon recieving an offer.  

 

 

Galvanize is great. I'll toot my own horn a bit to let you know what is possible thanks to Galvanize's full stack program. Before the program, I had attempted to learn a bit of JS on my own for a few months. I hadn't gotten very far; I could wire up an html site to run simple javascript that animated this and that on a largely static site. 

Fast forward to about a year and a half since graudation- I now write in four langauges to build and manage cloud infrastructure for multiple production applications responsible for scaling a growing company. I can move from SQL in the database to the server (Ruby, Golang, Apex, and Node) to the front end (React, Angular, Backbone, jQuery) with comfort and ease. I've started a small web business on the side with friends I met in the program. I have a job that requires I never stop learning that lets me solve problems and create new things everyday. It has been great.

The program itself requires students that are self-motivated and interested in technology. Your hand will not be held and you will expected to work hard. I understand the curriculum has improved since I graduated, however while I was there a third of the program was devoted to work on a capstone project. This means you'll struggle against problems wholly unique to what your project requires, which means you must learn how to solve problems on your own. It also meant that individual lessons lasted only about 4 months- they were incredible because our instructors were incredible; I understand they both have moved on to become CTOs of profitable companies.

At the time there was not much in the way of job assistance, but I understand this too has improved since I graduated.

Before learning about Galvanize I had met with a college enrollment councilor to see what going back to get a degree is CS would require. Had I pursued that path I would still be in college full time, and I would have zero real world experience and knowledge (and quite a bit more debt!)

I highly recommend the Galvanize Data Science Immersive program if you are interested in pursuing a career in data science and are ready to really accelerate your learning.

I had been dabbling in programming and data science for a year or two, taking online courses or attending a hackathon here and there. I finally decided I was ready to take the plunge and pursue data science full-time. I researched a few programs in the Bay Area, applied to 2, and ultimately decided to enroll at Galvanize.

I found well-developed and challenging curriculum, with dedicated and supportive instructors. You will really learn a lot in 12 weeks-- but still remember you are getting an overview of many different topics and will likely want to dive deeper on a subset of topics on your own time. You probably won't emerge as an expert (unless you had pretty advanced knowledge coming in) as there is simply too much material for that. Instead, you'll have a strong foundation that you can continue to build on. I also see the careers services curriculum is being refined and better integrated into the program which I think will benefit future cohorts (ours was concentrated at the end of the program).

Overall, I found the program totally worth it. I'm sure most bootcamps grads benefit simply from having concentrated on learning full-time for 12 weeks, but after hearing of some other people's experiences, I really think Galvanize is one of the best out there.

Galvanize FSI was an incredible experience that not only am I so happy I chose to go through with, but that I actively miss for its unique immersive qualities and amazing fellow students and instructors. The curriculum we went through gave us a great base for being hired into the modern workforce, as well as many qualities of "real" software developers that I believe couldn't be learned in independent study because the instructors are all highly skilled developers themselves.

The Boulder campus itself is a wealth of fun people and opportunities, located in an amazing part of town with a beautiful view and facilities. If you put yourself out there to connect with those companies that work out of Galvanize and take advantage of luncheons and happy hours, it will only add an additional dimension to the coding course work you're assigned and I highly recommend it.

My cohort did experience some turn over in instructors which caused a loss of continuity in teaching style and rapport, but the management worked very hard to make sure we still had the experience we came for and I say ultimately succeeded. We simply met more individuals, but they were all qualified and effective in making us the best coders we could be.

Even as a "bootcamp," Galvanize made it clear to me and other students that they valued us as people who had sacrificed a lot to attend their program, much moreso than a typical higher ed institution. They worked hard to give us an incredible return on investment. The program isn't easy and you can't skate through it, but if you're committed at every step of the way you will never look back. Happy hunting!

Galvanize (gSchool) was an incredible experience. I was thoroughly immersed in code with a group of great individuals in one of the best spots in boulder (don't get me started on the lunchtime options). The program was responsive to changes in the development community and instilled a fantastic base of knowledge that helped me be successful as a junior (now mid level) software developer. 

As someone who is skeptical of learning institutions in general I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were invested in making sure that I was happy as a customer and as a learner. This course is not for those that are on the fence about learning to code though, it requires substantial (40 minimum, often upwards of 60 hours a week) commitment and willpower. The instructors are incredibly supportive and many of them went through the program themselves so they can relate well to what you're going through.