General Assembly

This course covers a wide breadth of areas in data science in a 2-month time span. I hardly had any experience with Python prior to this course. It was a bit fast-paced. But, I think the challenge was very important for me to start my Python development with a boost. I believe that the course accomodates to Python beginners and those who are more advanced. There is always an opportunity to grow. The instructors provide alot of material inside and outside of class. Also, you'll have plenty of references to utilize while you cultivate your Python skills after the course is completed.

I attended General Assembly's User Experience Design Immersive program from December 2017-February 2018. The instructor was extremely knowledgeable and helpful with a rich background in the field. Best practices are tought over 5 projects of varied length and subject matter.  Like all boot camps, General Assembly is what you make of it. Their campus is open all day long (every day except Sunday in Boston), and staff are always happy to help you understand and practice your new skills. A (minimum) cursory understanding of the scientific method or research methods is my recommendation to help you make the most of this enormous amount of information. Understanding of cognitive biases is also a plus. Design background will help a lot, but if you don't have any, you can start with youtube tutorials and GA will take you the rest of the way. 

I made the decision to jump careers and become a developer. I chose General Assembly based on their course curriculum and post-grad career support, and I could not be more pleased with that decision. My time at GA was amazing, the instructors took complex topics and presented them in a very easily understandable manner, and it fosters a great environment for learning and growth. When I look back on what I learned in the 12-week WDI program I'm amazed at what I was able to learn and do, and it would not have been possible without instructors who care and a curriculum designed to optimize what you learn and do.

I decided to do General Assembly after several failed attempts to teach myself programming. I tried reading books—they were usually out of date by the time I was trying to program against them and resulted in a lot of unnecessary and confusing bugs. I tried signing up for free MOOCs and even paid online courses—I always ended up dropping them after the first evening because I got busy with life and didn’t have anyone holding me accountable. Finally, I found General Assembly - Denver —I had the desire to learn, but they expected me to show up every day and work hard to master this stuff, and it made all the difference.

Thanks to 2 fantastic teachers who believed in me, got me excited about working in technology, and helped explain complex JavaScript and web framework concepts piece-by-piece, I mastered the basics of web development in only 3 months!

One of the things I appreciated most about the web development course was the scope of the curriculum and how tightly it was aligned to the job search. Before GA, I kept switching around between C# and Python and other languages based on friend’s recommendations, and never got any traction on any of them because I didn’t know what employers were really looking for. GA is very focused on web languages and frameworks and there are a LOT of employers looking for those skills. I was surprised how many web development roles there were once I started looking.

The other thing I really liked about GA’s curriculum was the emphasis on projects. Sure, we had daily homework and lessons, but they were all aimed towards helping us succeed during the next project. And we could make whatever we wanted—it was super exciting and motivating to have that level of freedom during school.

GA’s #1 priority as a school is to help you land a job at the end. They talk about it when you apply, they talk about it every week during school, and you have constant access to a career coach during your job search. Before you graduate, you’ve taken a professional headshot, targeted your resume, updated your LinkedIn profile, and developed a personal portfolio site that highlights your 4 projects from school. Those tools, combined with some additional networking, interviewing and negotiating salary sessions with my career coach, helped me land a fantastic first gig within 4 months of graduating! And it wasn’t just me—most of the people in my class landed jobs within 3 months of graduating.

The only con I can think of is that Denver is a relatively new campus so they are still working out some of their processes. The good news is that gives you a lot of flexibility to pitch in as a student - I decided to put on a hackathon for alums and was able to make it happen. A more established program would probably have had a lot of red tape getting in the way of innovating like that. Also, even though GA’s Denver campus is relatively new, they have the resources of GA generally and are working hard to develop the alumni community. I’m still in touch with several people who graduated in my cohort, and not only are they good resources for networking and discussing issues we’re facing in the industry, they have also become some of my good friends in town!

I completed the Web Development Immersive course at General Assembly in Atlanta. The course was amazing, and I am very happy with the skills I developed. The instructors were very knowledgeable and obviously cared very deeply about the students' success. I always felt very comfortable on campus, and it is in an interesting part of the city. 

The curriculum presented marketable and relevant technologies in a logically progressive way. The curriculum is very flexible and changes to ensure students graduate with full-stack skills employers want.

The pace is challenging, and at times seems insurmountable, but the instructors and classmates help you through it all.

I am very, very glad I attended General Assembly.

I completed the Web Development Immersive course at General Assembly in Atlanta. The course was amazing, and I am very happy with the skills I developed. The instructors were very knowledgeable and obviously cared very deeply about the students' success. I always felt very comfortable on campus, and it is in an interesting part of the city. 

The curriculum presented marketable and relevant technologies in a logically progressive way. The curriculum is very flexible and changes to ensure students graduate with full-stack skills employers want.

The pace is challenging, and at times seems insurmountable, but the instructors and classmates help you through it all.

I am very, very glad I attended General Assembly.

As I was looking into going back to school for web development I had a friend(fellow web dev) help me pick out schools. We looked at what they offered and ultimatley chose GA. The reason I chose GA was for a few reasons.

1. They had a great curriculum that was not too long and not too short. A lot of the other schools are 5-7 months and it was hard to justify and be without work for that long. 3 months was the perfect amount.

2. My web dev friend knew other people who went through the program and found success.

3. I had 2 personal friends attend GA before me and they both strongly reccommend it.

The Instructors were very helpful and explained thing really well. They did have to go fast because it was a lot to cover in 3 months, but they did an amazing job. Zeb and Joe are easy to talk to and really help you get to the answer without giving it away. 

Job Assistance really turned up when they hired Nicole, She works very hard to make connections and network so that we students have better opportunites when we look for jobs. Nicole has made my resume and cover letters look better than they ever have before. She takes the time to speak to everyone and she never stops working because she wants everyone to succeed. I currently have a job, but I still talk to her weekly to stay in touch and push jobs her way for other students. 

Overall I can't believe how quickly I got up and running in 3 months and was able to secure a job. I could not have done this withou GA. Being in the class room, struggling(in a good way) and learning this world was such a great experience. So many doors have opened up becuase I took the leap to change my carreer. I can't thank GA and the staff enough!

quality of the curriculum:
I took the online JavaScript Circuit. The curriculum covered quite a lot of information in a progressive fashion. The course covers JavaScript, JQuery, APIs and Deployment. The delivery of information in easy to digest chunks of information was very helpful, as were the coding exercises with helpful hints after each section. This new JavaScript knowledge has opened a whole new world to me that works hand in hand with my HTML/CSS, visual design and UX design skills. I would highly recommend the course.

instructors:
The weekly 1:1 online meetings were very positive. My mentor was extremely helpful. When I had questions and difficulties with the final project, another mentor was very helpful, answering emails promptly and setting up an online meeting to give some assistance.

cons: 
I was new to JavaScript and there was so much material presented at once. So, even though I was able to follow and understand the material and the logic most of the way through, by the end of the course it became difficult to be successful with the deployment coding. I ended with a project that is not fully functioning. I just finished the course and I still have some time with email access to mentors, so hopefully this will be resolved.

GA give me the skills and confidence to become a Software Engineer at a Fortune 50 company. I started work just 4 weeks after graduating and have been working for 2 years now.  The best decision I have ever made was to attend GA.  The quality of instruction was best-in-class.  The facilities are fantastic.  Job assistance was very helpful in getting graduates in front of hiring managers and recruiters.  Everyone in the cohort who applied themselves in the class was quickly able to find meaningful development work.  That fact alone demonstrates the high quality of the GA instruction.  I can't say enough good things about GA.  

I had a great experience at the 1-week long General Assembly product management intensive.  I have experience in web development and found that I was learning non-stop during the week-long course, and feel proud of what my team came up with in our final project.

Perks:

Instructors (David & Vince) were terrific.  Not only were they extremely knowledgeable on the topics, but they also were great teachers and had a clear passion for what they were covering.  They were the best part of the course, by far!

Team project environment made the course engaging.  Everything we were learning applied directly to the project that we were working on.  Individual assignments were organized in an intelligent way to build up to the finished final project.

Feedback on work was great.  David looked through the assignments critically, giving insights on how to improve it and worked personally with our team to improve our work.

Lectures on topics were clearly prepared and covered the topics in depth.

Cons:

At my full-time job, I kept some responsibilities and worked over email before & after class and on our lunch breaks.  Given the course material, homework, and intensity of the course, this was a little overwhelming.  I would strongly suggest ensuring you have no other responsibilities when taking this week-long intensive.

Overall the course was great.  Worth the price of tuition and then some.  Thanks David & Vince!!

Completed a 5-week online course. For 5 weeks, it was a good amount of information and learning. Definitely good for beginners looking to learn more about digital marketing. The online course was very flexible and accommodating to my needs as I am a full-timer. I was able to complete units in my own time and 1 on 1 mentor hours were very flexible. Was also able to extend the course for a couple of weeks to ensure I could complete the units properly. Support team was great and the content was insightful.