General Assembly

GA is pretty much a lie. They will show you statistics saying 95% of graduates get jobs 6 months after graduating, that might be true, but these jobs are not in tech. Only 2 of the 20 people in my course have coding jobs as far as I can tell and I stay in touch with 5 of my classmates.

 Instruction was done more through zoom chat than in person (and this was pre-covid). Save your $14K and watch youtube videos, you'll be richer and better off. 

The straw that broke the camel's back was the overall unavailability of my instructor during the last 3 weeks of the course. We were expected to make final projects for a teacher who WAS NOT THERE!!

The part-time Data Analytics program at General Assembly gives students a deeper dive into data analytics using tools such as Excel, SQL, and Tableau. 

I enrolled in the Data Analytics part-time course at General Assembly's Boston location. The instructor and TA were incredibly approachable, and the enrollment process was seamless. One qualm I had was the instructor could have had better public speaking skills; the instructor spoke very softly and did not seem confident at times in the subject matter. The TA did a better job, in my opinion, of presenting the information. The GA platform was also very easy to use, and I was able to access my coursework/projects with no issues. I also enjoyed having a Slack group to communicate with the instructor/TA and peers. This came in very handy when we were working on group projects. 

General Assembly was a great way to get your foot in the door in the UX world. I felt as though my class was extremely close and supportive. The environment itself was awesome, fast-paced, and innovative. However, be prepared to be job searching for a long time afterward. It is rare that my classmates have landed a job--even 4 months after the program. This is partly due to COVID-19, as well as some employers not understanding the value of GA education. I felt as though there could have been more emphasis on UI, networking, and creating case studies. The career coaching is awesome as well but you really have to be a self-starter and cannot rely on anyone to do the hard work for you. Most of my classmates have landed either internships or short term contract work--but every start is a good start! Overall, it was a really good experience and a really great way to meet other people wanting to get into UX. 

I have almost 10 years of full-time design experience, but I wanted to make sure I was going to be successful in my move to user experience design. For me, there was some information I already knew but there was a lot of new content, which is what I expected. The new content flowed like water from a fire hose and the days were long, but what can you expect from an "immersive boot camp" after all? The new software was really easy for me to pick up, but if you aren't quick to pick up new design software or haven't used any design software before, you may have more of a learning curve. 

I looked at several boot camp options, including General Assembly, Bloc.io, CareerFoundary, and a boot camp the turns out to just partner with big-name schools (but doesn't actually have any connection to the schools or the alumni networks). I investigated them myself and interviewed people in my LinkedIn network who had done one of them. I decided on General Assembly because of the success that their graduates had versus the other boot camp graduates. I recommend doing your research and deciding based on that, but if you want to work with other people in hands-on teams (outside of COVID-19) I can't recommend General Assembly enough. 

There are definitely cost differences, but I wasn't willing to spend a big chunk of money, even if it was less than GA, if the content and results weren't going to be worth it. $5,000 might seem like a safer bet, but if it turns out to be a waste of time, it is also a waste of $5,000. 

No matter what you choose, it is on you to make the most of it. Don't just phone it in. You need to commit the time and effort—you get what you give to the course. It will be hard work but it will also be worth it.

I took this course from June to August of last year. I received my certificate of what I assumed to be a somewhat challenging but realistic journey to employment. Professor Kiri and Victor were great! They've been available for critiques and references. I have no issues with them at all; however, I do not take the online course with the expectations of getting hired after. I came from a completely different industry (which they encourage), but I was not expecting it to be like this. In the Immersive program, the professors have time to go over what to expect on your application journey. Online...we covered what to expect after class was over for about 30 minutes. They do not tell you what to look add to your portfolio, nor do they help you find jobs. I was also told that I would be notified of different groups in my area for UX. I was not. I know I sound like a bitter person, in which I would agree, but please be aware of this when you agree to do the online program. I have responsibilities as an adult, so I cannot just quit my job to move to a completely different city. If I had family there, then maybe, but this experience after completing the course has been brutal and very discouraging, to say the least. Very dissatisfied bt this whole experience. If I could get a refund...I would! DO NOT GO FOR THE SHORTER COURSES! Take your time, do the 6+ months. 

I absolutely made the best decision to join General Assembly's UXDI immersive, in person, 10 week course.  I entertained a handful of coding bootcamps over the year, and everything seamlessly fell into place when I decided on the UX path.  The admin were extremely helpful & transparent during the onboarding process. My instructor was beyond incredible. He had energy, enthusiasm and honesty throughout the course.  This is a tough course in terms of hours and dedication needed. The staff was clear about this, and offered lots of support to get everyone through the course.  I couldn't wait to come to class everyday and was excited to mingle with the other cohorts and build relationships with the data scientists and developers ( I highly recommend this). I will miss being at GA every day, but I am well prepared for the future.  Outcomes was amazing as well. Our instructor prepared us to present ourselves in an authentic way and prepped us well for interviews.  GA also provided plenty of social events and industry specific meetups. 

Fantastic program. Make sure you do your research before coming into he program, though - we had some classmates who thought the curriculum would get more into data science and cyber security, which is definitely not the purpose of this program. That being said, if you're looking to get experience (using templates) in front end web development and designing api's, this is an excellent course. It's important to remember that, at the end of the program, you're not supposed to be a programming hero - you are going from 0 to 1, and you're at a place where you are teachable and attractive for an entry-level, junior developer position.

That all said, the community at GA is super tight. The instructors are driven, the staff is warm and reliable, and the job-seeking support is unreal. I really enjoyed my time, felt like I learned not just a set of skills but also how to openly approach new problems and languages, and got my money's-worth in terms of being prepared to enter the workforce after the class. I really can't speak highly enough about the staff and instructors. Be prepared to drink some community kool-aid, but if you can embrace the validation-forward atmosphere, it'll be a phenomenal experience.

I am so glad that I decided to go to GA as a newcomer to coding. Not only did I learn a lot about web development, but I also built a really good foundation to learn more about coding. It's definitely not easy, and you're going to live and breathe code for 3 months, but it's well worth it. 

My favorite aspect of GA is definitely the community. There's a strong network of GA grads/staff/students in Boston, and they're all genuinely supportive of you as a person. Even now, when I've graduated GA, I still get to go into the space and do work and drink free coffee (always a plus :)

I attended the GA Data Science Immersive in London in 2019. I will of course only relate my experience at this particular GA course in London, and I have no experience as to how it is conducted elsewhere. First of all, I would like to state that I thoroughly enjoyed the course, and the instructor (Christoph) was fantastic. It suited my purposes well, and was what  expected when I enrolled in it. That said, I can see why the course might not be for everyone given the not insignificant cost involved (fees and likely need to quit your job to attend the full-time program), which leads to my second point.

Second, the course in my view best suits two types of people: 1) those who are familiar with statistics through multivariate linear regression, or 2) those who are familiar with intermediate Python coding, for example "zip", "enumerate", basic OOP etc. The reason for this is because the intensive nature of the course means that it would be extremely challenging for a person with neither good statistics nor Python familiarity to take full advantage of what the course offers. You would not be "getting your money's worth" in that case, in my opinion.

The course is very intensive, with lectures and in-class exercises 9.00-12.30, then continuing through the afternoon 1.30-5.00pm. On top of this are four homework "projects" and one final "capstone project" over the 12-week period of the course. The participants are encouraged to help each other, and indeed this was my experience. 

In terms of the content of the course, be aware that it is more geared towards the (Python) coding aspect of data science, than the statistics concepts/theory aspects. In that sense it is a very coding applied data science course. For those coming in with computer programming knowledge (as explained above), you would have the time/space to self-study to grasp the statistics aspects of the subjects covered. 

I made the switch to product design after contemplating the career move for a couple years. I was nervous about making a change, and put it off until I exhausted all other options. I completed the full-time UX design immersive course because I wanted to get more formal training and experience in the field, in a short time frame. 

Pros: GA stood out to me because of the timeframe (only 10 weeks!) and career coaching (which is amazing). I had also been to a few of their events and shorter bootcamps and enjoyed those. Having an in-person experience was important to me because UX design is so collaborative, you're working with tons of people and different teams, so an added bonus was the diversity of our class and learning how to work with a lot of different people. I think the class was super practical and hands-on, we started doing real UX work day 2. The main instructor was amazing, I don't think I would have had as much success if she wasn't the instructor. 

Cons: I would have liked more focus on the engineering collaboration with design, since handing off and working with engineers is such a huge component of a UX or Product Designer's day-to-day. I think we did a pretty good job covering the basics and most important methods and tools, but in the short time frame we didn't get to develop a super large toolbox. 

First off, registration is relatively easy. Via email and eventually on a call with a counselor, unless there is a word they otherwise prefer, who was friendly, encouraging, and knowledgable. Further email communications were responsive and efficient enough.

Starting the course: I was a little nervous, since I hadn't done any real continuing education in quite a while, but from the first class I felt like had settled right in and would have a lot of fun learning again. Our instructor was (is!) smart, fun, energetic, and open to any and all interruptions and questions in the spirit of a reasonably free-flowing learning environment.

Overall, the material was organized and delivered at what I think was a proper pace: ideas building on previous lessons, never jumping too far ahead, and each new point related to the previous work. Round about the midway point I started to get overwhelmed, which is natural from time to time, and my instructor read that immediately and assured me that I was doing fine. In fact, we were reminded from the beginning that our learning would not necessarily be a linear thing and that was to be expected.

By the end, I'd met my stated goals for the 10 week bootcamp-style course and am happy with the results. I even made 5 new friends (it was a small class this time around!) and we got a lot done.

I have been in graphic/visual design for 8+ years of my career. I know the ins and outs of it and I know I'm pretty good at it. However, I knew I wanted to pivot my career. I was tired of being a pixel pusher, and I wanted a bit of a change. UX really is the future, and so after a lot of conversations and preparation, I decided to register for the parttime UX Design course. It took place every Tuesday and Thursday evening, from 6:30 - 8:30 PM, for 3 months. 

Luckily, I live in Midtown so the commute wasn't the worst, but traffic absolutely sucks when you're in a rush to go right after work. I work until 6 PM, so I definitely had to move it. Luckily, I was late maybe once the entire time. It was an easy commute otherwise.

The course itself was laid out very well. I will sincerely say, I enjoyed my experience with the General Assembly. I learned SO MANY new things over the three months, but it also allowed me to pinpoint areas in my career where I've already used UX principles without realizing it. You basically start from the very beginning of the process, all the way to the very end: problem statements, user interviews and personas, competitive analysis, user flows and sitemaps, wireframes, and prototypes. I would say 2/3 of the time, you're learning more about the UX research principles, and 1 month is dedicated more to the actual design process, such as wireframing and prototypes. One of the biggest benefits for me was learning how to take the data from interviews and user testing and actually apply it to my product. You learn that with UX design, the design strategies you start to implement, are data-driven and done for a reason, and not just because someone tells you to do it a certain way. 

Our instructor was very well prepared and did a great job making sure we understood what she was teaching each evening. But she was more than just an instructor. She was our friend and our mentor. I lacked confidence and second-guessed my abilities, but she helped push and challenge me the entire time. In the end, she also pushed me to be more confident in my skills. She was definitely a driving factor to my excitement to take the course. 

Be warned, the three months isn't easy. What I mean by that is it's a commitment. Some days you absolutely won't want to go to class, but you're paying to learn a wide range of skills that will benefit you in the long run. There were days that I had to drag myself to go. But I'm glad I did. I learned something new in every class. I also made some connections that I wouldn't have made otherwise.

The biggest and only real negative is that as a part-time student, you do not get help with job placement or networking. Sure, General Assembly looks great on your LinkedIn, but that's sort of the extent of what you get besides a completion certificate. If you're absolutely brand new to UX or design, and you're looking to make it your career after completion, I would actually recommend maybe considering the full-time immersive program. They give you far more portfolio pieces in the end (3 to 5 versus just 1 in the part-time), and they do their best to help with job placement. I was really lucky that as a graphic designer, I was able to tweak some of my work to speak to the UX of a given project. Others may not have been as lucky.

Costwise, it wasn't cheap either. The part-time program costs just under $4,000. They do offer some payment plans, which helped a lot. I don't think anyone can just drop that kind of money in one swoop. So it's not cheap, but I genuinely think you do get the value out of it. 

Do I recommend the part-time program? Absolutely. If you have a job that you're not ready to give up yet, definitely consider the part-time course. I would not have learned as much as I did, or taken it as seriously if I had taken the online course. I, unfortunately, do not know anyone who has taken the online course, but I do know some who have taken the full-time course, and they got out of it exactly what they were wanting. I got out of the part-time course, exactly what I wanted too.