Metis

I've always been a math geek, which is what drew me towards the data science space.  Having already had some exposure to coding and statistical modeling as an EE major, I realized that self-study wasn't enough to fill in the gaps, and a graduate program in data science would have been excessive.   

I spent a lot of time researching different programs, and very few compared in terms of community and level of attention as Metis.  Not only did the program do well to fill in the gaps and help to build a well-rounded portfolio, but it introduced me to a huge community of people who are all as eager as I am to learn.

Inevitably there were gaps in the curriculum (it's impossible to cover everything in 12 weeks), but the program and instructors did well to establish a foundation and point me in the right direction to dig deeper.  Even after finishing the program I was still learning and working on independent projects with their support. 

The career staff bent over backwards to make sure I had all the resources I needed as I went through the uphill battle that is the interview process as a newly-minted data science graduate. 

In short, it was a difficult decision for me to go through with the program, but I don't regret it.

I graduated from the Seattle Fall cohort (the second cohort in Seattle) in December. I come from a pure math background, and I'm a recent Ph.D. grad who was pretty nervous about going into data science.

Metis is everything I wanted out of a bootcamp. The project based curriculum works really well, especially since the topics of projects 2-5 are entirely self directed. It's easy to get excited about learning this stuff when you're applying it to a topic you really care about. That also makes it easier to pick yourself up when you fall -- and you'll fall a lot.

The lectures are an excellent introduction to the material, too. I had the opportunity of both learning from the Fall 17 instructors and TAing for the Winter 18 instructors, and all four of them were awesome.

Some quick warnings. Definitely do the prework. Definitely work ahead as much as possible -- everything sneaks up on you, from project MVPs to student investigations. This bootcamp is extremely intense -- I had to defend my Ph.D. in the middle of it, and that was the next thing to impossible. Don't do that. :P

Career resources are incredible, too. The job hunt is a long, demoralizing, frustrating process, and our career advisor made everything go so much more smoothly. I had no idea how much I was doing wrong, or making things harder for myself, when I was trying to figure out everything on my own.

The community of alumni is a great resource. My cohort actually had Thanksgiving together -- not every one will be that closely knit, but you'll definitely make friends and business contacts, and you have the whole network of Metis alums to draw on.

One small gap in the curriculum -- at least for me -- was some fundamental statistics stuff, especially related to experimental design and a/b testing. But the curriculum is evolving, and Seattle is still a young campus. Be forewarned, though, if your basic statistics is a little shaky like mine was, you might need to do some self-study in some areas.

If you can afford it (both in terms of time and money) then Metis will give back so much more than you put in. Highly recommended.

I attended the Fall 2017 bootcamp in Chicago. From the beginning, Metis was very helpful to me. I live in the DC area and the NYC cohort was full, but they helped me come out to Chicago so that I could still participate. They were very helpful (Nathan Vermeiren) with my housing search and all of my other out-of-town needs.  I ended up staying right next to the Metis office which worked out great. It was actually helpful for me to be away from home because I didn't have any of my usual distractions/duties to do, so I recommend  going out of town.  The only downside to going out of town was that Metis was not as connected in the DC area. Metis did continue to support me fully in the job search until I obtained employment and I had no trouble contacting the DC Metis alums who were quite helpful.

The curriculum is great. They spend a small amount of time on many methods and tools used in data science. They are not simply choosing the tools that are 'always done'. I know our teachers went out of their way to have us use the most current tool for the job (like spark vs. hadoop) and/or the best tool for the job. Often they would show us several ways to do something and then we would choose the one that we liked best or were familiar with.  One of the many things that make this bootcamp more valuable than sitting in your PJs on coursera, is the ability to ask them questions (more on this below). Another is that you will learn the method/tool and then USE it in a major project, not just  a homework. This project will be something that you are proud of and can put on your resume. These projects are the reason I got job interviews. Not my PhD, or my peer reviewed publications, but  my ML projects from Metis. The interviewers would ask far more questions about my metis projects and I was able to speak about the methods with confidence and authority because the project required me to know what I was doing.

The timing of the teaching is just right, in that they teach it to you the day before you need to start using it in your project. The best way to learn is to use it right away, and you will. Cloud computing/storage (AWS, Spark,hadoop) and databases (SQL, MongoDB) are other topics where it is valuable to have an in-person teacher. These are things that are difficult to get right when reading a forum because some things will be specific to your hardware or router. It would have taken me MUCH longer to figure out how to use AWS by myself.

 

Teachers are what makes the Metis experience. Our teachers were Zach Miller and David Ziganto. These 2 are truly great instructors and also great mentors. They are incredibly knowledgeable about all things Machine Learning and Python, and are so patient when you have questions. They also have many informative stories about their experiences when working in data science or interviewing data scientists for jobs. They taught us about what you do as a data scientist, and pitfalls to watch out for. One of the things that they manage to do is push you really hard and enforce difficult deadlines, but at the same time support you. They aren't going to give you answers (like any good teacher) but they will help you get out of being stuck on one thing for too long. They come and sit with us ALL day, every day and were never dismissive or impatient.

I have never had someone be so hard on me about presentations. They have incredibly high standards and it has taught me so much about something I thought I was already good at. I didn't fully understand why they wanted these 5-6 min presentations until I had my first interview and realized that a quick presentation is what you are doing every time you get an interview. It's literally interview prep, w/o labeling it that way. The career advisor Ashley Purdy was a big part of the presentation brigade and she helped me communicate complex things  in a less technical way (which is very important for a data scientist).  These three never let up on me for a single second and it was perfect.

I paid for bootcamp so that I could get better and that means I need to be pushed into a place(s) where I am not comfortable. I can do comfortable projects on my own. Full disclosure: I did not always succeed when they encouraged me to do things that were harder and that was ok. They were there for me when I failed and helpful about what I could do to deal with it. I know that's not always the case (it's completely possible to fail bootcamp if you are underperforming consistently), but because I choose something that was less 'safe' for me, they took this into consideration, and made sure that I was mentally/emotionally ok.  

Ashley Purdy (career advisor) pushed me to do things that I never would have done in my search for jobs and online presence. Metis required me to write a blog, which has earned me more than one interview, and I now enjoy writing posts. Our teachers have even promoted my posts via linked in and data science weekly. Ashley also showed me how to cold call people on linked in and just talk to them about their job (informational interview). This was very scary and really paid off, as one of the people I spoke with got my resume in front of the right people which led to me obtaining the job I wanted!  She is there when I have questions about salary negotiation or whether a recruiter is just spamming me. There were also some great presenters that came to talk about what they do at company X as a data scientist. The Metis alumni is a great community and will really help to build your data science contacts.

Metis’ career advisor (Ashley in Chicago) is one of the main reasons I chose Metis over some other bootcamps. Metis is very invested in whether you are able to obtain a job that you love. They don’t just present you to a few employers and say ‘bye’; they continue to make sure that you are structuring your days and applying to places that will be a good fit for you. It was always very clear that they were not just trying to get me to take any job so that they could check a box. In fact, they encouraged me to hold out for what I want rather than take the first thing I was offered.

Zach, David, Ashley and Nathan are also just really great people. They have a great sense of humor and are fun to be around. We had plenty of good laughs together (students+staff) and I know I had a great time while also being stressed out. This is why I always say, it's like grad school (in fast-forward) w/o the emotional abuse. lol  

Students were another important part of the bootcamp. Every student was highly motivated and smart. We hall had various  areas of expertise and I liked learning from them. It's very much a feeling of 'we're all in this together' and even when I wanted to slack off, I was inspired by them to continue to bring my 'A game' because they operated at such a high level. They were an important part of the high standards that Metis and our teachers set.

This bootcamp is  intense. If you have been through a PhD program, it's kinda like the night before you have to send your abstract/poster to the conference committee and you all stay up all night together working on it. Except that's every day for 12 weeks. You will want to spend your weekends on your projects, and come home pretty late (not everyone does this, but I did). So, be prepared for that level of work. It's completely worth it, but not possible for everyone. There's a reason they call it a bootcamp...

In sum, I highly recommend the Metis bootcamp to people who can devote the time. I obtained 2 very good job offers, in writing, within 2 months of the graduation date. I now have a job at Booz Allen Hamilton as a data scientist that is exciting, and I am ready to connect you to my network once you graduate from Metis!  

Overview: 
The Metis data science bootcamp is three months of intense learning. The curriculum is a data science survey course covering a wide range of data science topics from linear regression to natural language processing. Each topic is divided into approximately two week segments where you learn about the math and details behind the topic and at the same time, work on a project implementing what you learned. 

Difficulty Level: 
I attended Metis to make a career change. I was formerly a trader for 11 years. For me, the lessons and coursework at Metis were extremely challenging. I spent every day and night working on projects, debugging code, and reviewing material and still felt over my head for much of the bootcamp. I was putting in 12+ hour days, seven days a week. 

Metis's Strengths:
Metis especially shines in three aspects. One is the quality of the students. My cohort had 11 people in it. There was a large range of math and programming skills in the cohort. The students with more advanced technical skills were able to take advantage of material and produce more advanced projects than others. Everyone completed a portfolio of projects. Given this differing skill level, the learning atmosphere was collaborative. Every student was stressed and overworked. We used this common bond and help and support each other.

Another strength of Metis is the quality of the instructors. The instructors for my cohort were tough but fair. Their data science knowledge was impressive. They held our cohort to a very high bar. I both succeeded and failed at times, but they were there to guide me on how to improve and make progress.

Finally, Metis focuses on getting its graduates employed. Throughout the entire bootcamp, there is an overarching theme of getting employed. Each campus has a full time career advisor who knows the ins and outs of navigating the data science job market. Upon completing the program, you will have a portfolio of five projects to show employers that you are capable of performing as a data scientist. The instructors gave us insight into what employers are looking for in terms of the interviewing process and job performance. This combination of projects, instructors, and career advisors is how I managed to land job interviews and eventually get hired. 

One thing I wish I knew before Metis:
I would have gotten more out of Metis if I had more of an introduction to the machine learning algorithms. Understanding the machine learning algorithms was the most challenging part of the course. There were times where we spent two hours on an algorithm then moved on to the next topic. It was impossible for me to understand this complex new material in that short amount of time. 

Conclusion:
Before Metis, I was not competitive for any data science positions. I wasn't even competitive to receive an interview.

After completing the 3 month program at Metis, I was competitive for entry level data analyst and data science positions. I received an offer 2 months after the bootcamp ended.

Pros:
- Metis gives you all the tools for success
- They spend time helping you develop the soft skills necessary to excel in your career (project presentations, public speaking, working in a team, communication)
- They touch base on industry skills that aren't always used in an academic setting (git, open-source programming languages)
- They scratch the surface of many topics -- some might see this as a flaw and make someone a 'jack of all trades, master of none' but Metis provides you all the tools to get started in a specific topic domain -- it's up to the student to really exploit the resources that they provide.
- Job support and alumni network is incredible. After graduating, all alumni from all cohorts from the other campuses are connected and this provides a great network of people to reach out to for advice or help on a specific problem or job opportunities, et cetera. The careers department helps you with everything from resume to salary negotiation to just plain advice on what to do next when you're talking to a potential employer.
- Instructors are some of the coolest and smartest people I've ever met. They're incredibly intelligent and focused on their  but so down-to-earth and unpretentious that you would have no idea that they went to MIT or Cornell.

Cons:
This isn't even a 'CON'. I just wish I knew this beforehand.....
- In my opinion, Metis is BEST for those that are making a career CHANGE. In other words, someone who has already has an established career and looking to get into the data science realm. With data science being such a hot industry, most employers are looking for people with job experience (regardless of the domain). So for people (like myself) who don't have work experience and chose Metis as a substitute for graduate school --- expect to have to work a little harder to land that first job :)

I hope this review helps other people in a similar situation as mine.  I came to the 12-week bootcamp with little to no relevant professional experience (I was in software sales beforehand), but willing to do whatever it took to break into a career in Data Science.

If you want to transition career paths like I did, Metis is absolutely the way to do it.  I had several interviews with interested employers within days of graduating, with one interview coming just minutes after I presented my final project at career day -- and this all during the holidays, when recruiting is generally slower.

Metis provides the tools and support that are impossible to get for a career-switcher like myself.  Yes, you can crack a book on statistics and do some Hackerrank coding -- and you should do those things anyway! -- but that is nothing compared with the legitimacy that I've gained in employers' eyes by investing time and money in the program.  Moreover, the career support is excellent and doesn't expire; the Career Services staff have done an outstanding job of building a hiring network that you as a Metis student have full access to, and they give top-notch advice on the minutiae of resume writing, LinkedIn profiles, and so on.

In my opinion, a further vastly underrated aspect of Metis is the strength of the alumni network.  By graduating from the program, I instantly have connections to alums that have ended up at major companies in many different industries.  Browse the LinkedIn profiles of Metis alumns and you can see for yourself.

I will give two pieces of advice: one for those making a decision about Metis, and one for those who have decided to attend the bootcamp.

My advice in making a decision whether to attend is to contact as many alums as you can via LinkedIn or through their blogs, and ask them about their lives pre-, post-, and during Metis.  You will learn a lot about what Metis students are like, and whether you can see yourself as one of them.

My advice for you, if you will be attending, is to take as much initiative as you can to learn what you can beforehand.  I personally read and noted "Intro to Statistical Learning," a Machine Learning textbook, and I found that I got much more out of the bootcamp because of that.  You may decide that Andrew Ng's Coursera course is more your speed, or maybe something else -- but putting in the work regardless will pay off.  The bootcamp is only 12 weeks long, and you can't possibly learn 100% of everything that's thrown at you.  Putting in the sweat equity ahead of time will pay enormous dividends if you're not seeing most of the machine learning concepts for the first time.

I financed the bootcamp myself with savings.  It is obviously not cheap to attend, and I thought long and hard before finally submitting my payment.  But in end the desire to change careers won out, and I have not looked back since.  The bootcamp was worth every penny that I spent, even if it was nerve-wracking to commit to at first.

In sum, I would wholeheartedly recomend Metis to anybody that is truly motivated to change careers, even if it is a significant change like it was for me.

I took the d3.js/data science course at Metis with Mollie Petit. 

Mollie was really helpful and positive throughout the course. She provided a ton of resources for us to learn throughout the classes as well as after. I learned a lot both about data science as well as the practical application of d3.js. 

The only thing I wish was that we had a bit more time and/or the class was more spread out so as to allow for a slower learning pace. 

The course overall was great. Mollie was an enthusiastic, positive teacher who was always available for help. I would highly recommend the class for anyone interested in data science or d3.js specifically. 

Prior to enrolling in Metis I was a PhD candidate in a subject matter that is generally not seen as related to data science. While I was confident in my statistics background I had only coded sparingly and was completely new to machine learning concepts. On a whim I decided it was time to leave academia and stumbled upon data science as a career option. After debating whether or not to enroll in a bootcamp or teach myself the curriciulum I quickly found Metis and decided to apply, was accepted, and enrolled soon thereafter.

Having received a PhD I was no stranger to learning and was happy to discover that the Metis program design and curriculum was exactly what I was looking for. It was the perfect combination of fun, knowledge, and rigor. Given that the course is only 12 weeks the pace can be relatively quick at times; that said, I felt confident in the material I was learning and truly engaged in the projects I was delivering. At times I felt stressed, afraid, and overwhelmed that the work I was doing wasn't up to par but was continually validated and supported by my classmates, instructors, program manager, and career staff. And for my final project I was able to create an app that combined my PhD expertise with data science and was elated to find merging the two fields was a relatively easy task.

Within about a month after I completed the bootcamp, with the help of the career team, I had multiple job interviews under my belt and received a job offer as a Senior Data Scientist. I can't say enough good things about the careers staff both on site and around the country. In my experience, they were constantly on my side on my job hunt, during negotiations, and even after I accepted the offer.

Without a doubt I am confident that Metis was the right choice for me. While I'm certain I could teach myself to code and some overarching machine learning concepts, I found the classroom experience to be invaluable for me. The opportunity to engage with peers, ask questions, and of course the career support could not be self-taught. If you're on the fence about whether or not Metis is the right choice for you I strongly suggest that you take the leap!

Metis is an absolute gem. The bootcamp was an amazing experience and extremely worthwhile. I felt like I got more out of it than any other educational program I've been in.

What made Metis stand out for me was the support that students received at every step of the way. From the coursework, to the projects, to career help- Metis truly has every student's back. It feels amazing to know that you have someone to turn to who will actually help (or try very hard even if they don't know how). The focus on employability is also very refreshing. It seemed at times that Metis was more urgently trying to get us employed than we were- which I loved! Like a pushing parent- it was what we all needed.

My thoughts in summary: the coursework leaves your thoroughly prepared for a position in data science, the speakers introduce you to an amazing array of applications and directions to head in after the course, and the career help is extremely thorough and personal.

I'm a fulltime software engineering manager with 3 kids.  It's challenging to find time at home to level up on a new language so every couple of years I look for a short-term night class to force it.  I maintain a metrics pipeline at work and I chose D3 because I was looking to take my visualizations to the next level.

My first impression is that Metis has a very high bar for instructors.  This course was taught by Michael Freeman who is a University of Washington professor and a widely recognized expert in the data visualization community.

His creds:  https://ischool.uw.edu/people/faculty/mikefree

Michael is someone who can write 300 lines of D3 from memory in 10 to 15 minutes while verbally explaining every detail to the class along the way.  By the end of the 15 minute session he's manipuated a huge dataset into a beautiful visualization, answered all of your questions along the way, and taught it in a way where *everyone* in the class could start working on in it in their next lab.  For me the teacher makes the class.  By the end of the course I felt like it was money well spent.

I am happy to say that I got a lot out of this course -- not only in knowledge and practical application but in inspiration and critical thought. In my experience this class was successful in what it set out to accomplish and I would very much recommend it to a friend or colleague.

It is important to note that the origin of my praise is the teacher himself, Kevin Quealy. His approach to teaching was interactive, casual and paced to maintain the inclusion of those who quickly understood as well as those who needed a bit more time to comprehend. I found myself on both sides of the spectrum throughout the course and felt confident that my questions would be addressed.

I recently finished the Metis Introduction to Data Science class in NYC and I have nothing but good things to say about it. I have been interested in Data Science for a while so I decided to go to a Metis meetup where they went over the curriculum of the class. I found it very interesting but what sold me was the teacher, Sergey Folgelson. He is an excellent and energetic teacher.

The class is intense and moves quickly. At the time of this review it runs every Tuesday and Thursday from 6:30pm to 9:30pm. You may be tired after a long day of work but Sergey will wake you up. There will be exercises thrown in at different portions of the lecture. You will learn a lot if you put in the work. I found that reviewing the notebooks after class on my own and completing the exercises really helped me retain the information. If you expect to just go to class and not do any homework then you might not get much out of it. As with most things you learn by doing. 

For me it was a perfect introduction to the field and just made me want to learn more. I loved it so much I applied to the 3 month intensive.If you work with data and are curious about what all the fuss is about Data Science then I cannot recommend this class enough. Best investment I have made in a long time.

I completed the data science bootcamp at Metis 2 weeks ago, and I am already missing the rigor and flow that I had gotten into. It is no doubt an intensive program, but the way Metis has structured it, you kind of start loving and enjoying the hard work. These are some of the highlights from my experience:

  1) Structure - It takes a few days to get used to the structure but once you do, you realize how powerful it is. Every thing they have planned in the day helps you learn something: 

• The pair programming challenge at the start of each day pumps up your brain in the morning. This also gives you a chance to work with different smart people from the class every day. 
• The lectures after that helps you learn a new topic. 
• The longer lunch time (1.5 hrs) helps you catch up on some work, or just chat and interact with your peers. 
• The investigative presentations that students give after lunch are also very interesting. Knowing your turn will come forces you to think about new and interesting topics -  research them and present when its your turn. 
• The practice time in the afternoon gives you lot of time to work on your projects and interact with the instructors and TA's one on one. 
• The weekly guest lectures give you an insight into the real world. You get to meet real data scientists from different industries, know their stories, how they work and and build networks. 
• The project presentations at the end of the weeks/end of every other week were the most interesting part. While you get to experience presenting and sharing your projects with the rest of the class and get feedback from the instructors, you also get to enjoy the projects built by others and overall it becomes an enriching experience. 

Homework/Challenges!. - Yes, expect this. While sometimes optional, the exercises helped solidify your understanding of topics covered in class.  The structure of the program was the best part for me.     2)  Staff support - I think the instructors are the most important players of any education system. We had very good instructors which complimented each other by being stronger in different areas. I have spent hours with my instructor Julia during practice time. Everyone was always available to help - the TA's, instructors, program manager.   3) Resources - Today, a simple search on anything related to data science turns up hundreds of hits. The curated content was awesome and helped us get the best possible detail on a given topic. They also had clear instructions on setup part for git, aws etc. which was great. The alumni slack channel is another amazing resource.    4) Career Support - They have amazing career support and are genuinely invested in helping everyone find their dream job. I enjoyed the career support sessions we had during the class. However, I found that we spent more time on the final project presentation than I would have liked. Given the short amount of time we had to cover all the important topics, I would have liked to spend more time with the instructors to learn/practice more about the algorithms than preparing for the final presentations.    All in all - its a great course and I am very happy I went for it!

I just graduated from Metis on April 7, 2017. Today is April 12th and I have already had a total of 5 interviews with 3 different companies - I have 3 more interviews with 3 more companies scheduled in the next two days. If it sounds too good to be true, you might be right. There was a lot of hard work getting to this point. But there is no doubt in my mind that I couldn't have gotten here without the help of everyone at Metis. Let me break down the what I think are the most important reasons to attend Metis:

1. What you will learn
   • Data science is massive. Machine learning is massive. You will actually spend most of your 12 weeks learning about how little you actually know. It's not until the last few weeks that you're able to look back and realize how much you learned. More importantly, you will know the things that you haven't learned yet. Metis sets you up to continue learning and growing for years to come. Before I attended Metis, I had an inkling of what Machine Learning is. Now, I am a full blown addict and couldn't be happier. I didn't even know 100% that it was "what I wanted to do", but now I can't imagine it being any other way. 
2. Who will instruct you
   • First off, Metis hires kick ass Senior Data Scientists to be your instructors. Every single one of them has an amazing background and a ton to offer you. The diversity of their team is really astounding and the domain expertise that instructors have, whether its from consulting, nuclear physics, banking, etc, all weaves its way into data science. My instructors really showed me what a wide open playing field Data Science is. Now that I've graduated, I couldn't be happier to have great mentors, contacts, and friends.
3. Who you will be in the trenches with
   • Everyone who is accepted to Metis is up to snuff. Your first week will inevitably be trying to gauge where you are at with other students and battling Impostor Sydrome, but the bottom line is that everyone there is there because they chose to do something different. I don't want to overtalk it, but attending Metis is a life-altering decision and you will always share that special bond with the people in your cohort. Not only will you spend hours and hours and hours together working on challenges and projects, but on a deeper level you know you all wanted something different and better for yourselves. That's a solid bedrock to build lasting relationships.  

 

So what did I leave out? Amazing career workshops, guest data scientist speakers almost every week, building a rock star portfolio of real-world problems, networking events, career day, food and drinks (sometimes but not always), and on and on and on. I didn't want to focus on the career aspect because honestly, if you do the work, if you attend the workshops, if you listen to your career advisor (shout out to Ashley!!), it will happen for you. Are there any downsides? Yes. Did I mention that there is a lot of hard work involved? Metis is a full-time commitment. And when I say that, I mean it. You will eat, sleep, and breath data science. You will bleed algorithms and you will sweat data and you will love it. 

I just graduated from the 1st cohort of the Chicago Metis Data Science Bootcamp last week, and I am already getting interviews for these great Data Science positions that I would not be qualified for without the going through Metis at all! The 12 weeks were intense and sometimes even brutal, but I honestly could not have done this much on my own. We learned to code in Python, statistics related to Data Science, supervised and unsupervised machine learning algorithms, and even did 5 projects from collecting data, building models, to presenting the analysis in front of a large group of audiences in just a short period of time. The instructors cared very much about each student's success so we got a lot of support. The Metis staff, especially our career advisor Ashley, were also super helpful to ensure that we would land our dream job successfully after the Bootcamp. We would spend the time to polish our resume, practice interviews, network with companies so that we are ready for the real challenge after the Bootcamp. Overall, I highly recommend Metis to anyone interested in switching career path to Data Science!!!

Overall, I really enjoyed the Metis Data Science Bootcamp experience! I came away from the program with a more well-rounded skillset that gives me a starting point for solving data science problems and additional reach-back to a network of other data scientists. I highly recommend checking out Metis if you’re interested in data science!

If you're interested in more of my detailed thoughts on the Metis experience, including the people, curriculum, location, and resources, check out this post on my blog.