Springboard

I took weeks in deciding which bootcamp to choose from. I looked at Careerfoundry, General Assembly, Designlab, and Springboard. 
I ultimately chose Sprinboard because they had a special offer for the UX Essentials Course. 
I was skeptical because of other reviews that I had read about Springboard. 

The course is mostly made up of content that you could find on the web. At first, I was skeptical about it, but what worked well (in my opinion) is how they structured the content to provide a thorough understanding of the UX Design process. 

I had a couple of months learning on my own about UX Design, and needed the structure that Springboard provided. 

The Springboard team is AMAZING! They responded very quickly and professionally that I would definitely take another course from them for their customer service! 

My mentor provided insight into every project and any questions that I might have. At times, we would also have discussions on topics unrelated to the bootcamp, but still related to the field. 

I would definitely recommend Springboard for anyone interested in taking their first steps into UX Design. 

SpringBoard is an ideal bootcamp for many reasons. There are flexible payment options, the course is entirely online, and there is tons of support from the large community and network of mentors. The curriculum uses many different resources to keep things fresh, exposes you to many different data science methodologies, and has two capstone project. The capstone projects were my favorite part of the bootcamp, as they were where I was able to learn best, bringing everything I had learned together for a problem that I got to choose. Overall a wonderful learning experience.

UPDATE (Got a job!)

This is the absolute best UX bootcamp you will find for the price and quality.  I found contract work 2 months after applying for jobs and continue to receive career support as I look for full-time positions.  I was also able to complete the course in half the time for half the price.   If your curious about how to complete the track super fast and efficiently please DM me - andrew.hopkins.d@gmail.com - I'd be happy to send you some lessons learned or answer questions :)  Feel free invite me on LinkedIn or view my portfolio there to gauge what you might come out with: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drew-hopkins-53052a114/ 

REVIEW

I thoroughly researched all of the other options before entering into this track, this one's the best.  Other bootcamps charge $10,000+ for coursework that teaches the same principles over the same length of time.  Additionally, springboard comes with a straight-forward job guarantee.  

The quality of the course material is excellent.  I’m an avid learner and have taken many online courses through community colleges and state colleges.  The amount of knowledge you gain and support you get from springboard makes universities look slow, petty, wasteful, unresourceful, and greedy.  Much of the course material is drawn from online sources, but this is now common practice in higher academia.  The coursework is highly informative and of sound quality (rivaling and surpassing the quality of a HCI course I took at PSU for example).  

What’s more, at the end of the career track you will also have a portfolio and a website platform to showcase all your work - critiqued by senior designer to make sure it looks right. And a CV and cover letter that is evaluated by those same designers.  You also get a weekly one-on-one mentor throughout the length of the course.  My mentor, Ciarda, tailored every session to my needs, was efficient beyond compare, and was always accessible.  You can also schedule help from additional mentors whenever you need.  

Finally, the administration of springboard is flexible, personable, and does right by its students.  I had the intention to complete the 6-month track within 3-months (I was on the month-to-month payment option so this would make the course $2,000 less for me).  There were a few set-backs that pushed me a couple days past this deadline.  The career track manager, Dave, very kindly worked with me through the obstacles to make sure everything worked out fairly. 

Going into it, I was worried a bootcamp might just be another form of degree-mill.  The company isn’t about extorting students for money, but really wants to empower students to learn and earn a good name doing so.  Way to go!  I’ll likely be coming back for the AI/Machine Learning track once I get my Python up to speed :)

Springboard was great with providing a clear path to learn about data science. The course is well laid out and progresses naturally, building on previous concepts. The 1:1 mentor time is critical in getting things clarified and individualized help, make sure you get the most of it by knowing what you want to discuss. The course is designed for 6 months but if you have limited to no coding experience expect to put in more time. Great support from the staff and career coaches as well. I came from a physical science background, so was lucky to be familiar with a lot of the math and statistics the course covers, but others may find having to spend extra time on that as well. Being able to work on projects that you have interest in is also a great way to make it more exciting.

I compared a lot of bootcamps before I decided to pursue my data science journey with Springboard, and I am very happy with my decision. 
I graduated with a major in bioinformatics and worked in research laboratory, so had very little data science experience when I started with the program. Although, I did come in with prior programming and statistics experience which definitely helped me in the first month of the bootcamp. 
The curriculum is very well designed with nicely curated material. It teaches you the most important skills that a person transitioning into DS would require, but at the same time gives you the flexibility to work on projects and pursue the learning journey with a bit of autonomy.
The mentoring was also a great experience, it was just the right amount of support that I needed - my mentor provided motivation to keep rolling and was very helpful when I was feeling stuck, and also provided insightful feedback. 
My over all experience was amazing and this program helped me make my transition into data science without a CS or math major and helped me feel confident about my skills. It is a great program for anyone who wants to transition into data science or just hone their skills further. 

I was interested in a career change but didn't know any data scientists. It's probably possible to learn from other free sources everything Springboard curated for me but I didn't know where to start and without guidance from a mentor, it was hard to guage where I was in this journey towards a career change. I felt having 1-on-1 access to a mentor was worth the price of admission. I truly valued my time with my assigned mentor as he was encouraging, helpful and experienced about the subject matter. Although I didn't take the career track, my mentor answered my career related questions. As a working professional with a family, Springboard made it possible to follow a syllabus and learn at my own pace.

Well-organized intensive online boot camp covering all aspects of the data science life cycle. In addition, materials on advanced topics (NLP, recommender system, Spark, etc.) are also included in the curriculum. The weekly one-on-one coaching call with industry expert is my favorite, providing necessary guidance and keeping me motivated throughout the program. Overall, I had a nice learning journey with Springboard and appreciated all the supports along the way. If you are looking for a good online boot camp with flexible hours at a reasonable price, Springboard Data Science Career Track is a good bet.

I took Springboard when I was still working as a full time web developer. I didn't have the opportunity to do any design work like was promised in this position, so I started to look at other options to pursue a career in design.

I went to school for Graphic Design before my web developer job and I was freelancing on the side, but it wasn't something I wanted to do full time because I saw how the trend in the work field was shifting from print to digital. I have a friend that is a UX Designer and after learning about what she did, I knew UX Design was a career I wanted to pursue. 

I chose Springboard because I was impressed with the curriculum and I liked that the max amount of time I'd have to spend weekly on doing assignments was 15 hours a week which I could handle with having a full time job. I also liked that all students get a mentor while they're doing the course, and Springboard was more affordable and shorter term than the other courses I looked at. It was also completely online which was ideal.

I already had experience doing month-long coding bootcamps in order to learn web development and a 6+ month course was not something I was interested in, as I was trying to transition to a new career as quickly as possible.

Springboard covered a lot of topics on the research side of UX which was what I was ultimately interested in because I already had experience with User Interface Design. My mentor, Cari had a plethora of knowledge about the UX design field since she's done it for about 10+ years. She provided helpful constructive criticism on my assignments and my projects would come out more pristine and better aligned with the industry standards after receiving her feedback.

Dave was an awesome student advisor and was always available to answer my course related questions. The course offered Office Hours in the evening which included interviews with UX Designers who had been in the field for a few years and would offer advice and share their experiences. I only went to a few of those but the ones I attended were helpful.

I started interviewing for my current job when I was in module 8 of the course. It was at the same company my friend worked at and she encouraged me to apply. Springboard seriously prepared me for the interview process even though I was no where near the career prep section of the course (that's module 14).

However, everything I learned up until section 8 helped me through the interview process, and Springboard's articles on Medium about preparing for interviews was also a life saver. The course in combination with the articles taught me how to explain my work and discuss the typical UX design process, since I had experience with that through the course.

I was interview around 4 times, with different members of the team/recruiters which included an in person interview and I also had to do a design challenge which I was very nervous about but I took everything I learned so far in Springboard and applied it to the challenge. 

I'm happy to share that I got the job and have working there for 3 months (since January), but I decided to still continue with Springboard and I completed the course the end of February 2019.

I would definitely recommend Springboard to those who already have a design background and are looking to gain more experience in the research aspect of UX Design. Even those who have a research background such as Psychologists, Communication/Marketing (I have a BA in Communication) majors will also find the course helpful if they're looking to transition into UX, however, the UI Design section isn't as thorough in this course like in the UX Career Track, as this course is only 3-4 months long.

If you're looking for a course that goes more in depth when it comes to UI design, the UX Design Career Track for Springboard might be a better option. That course is 6 months long with career coaching and a job guarantee, but the application process is much more extensive and the price is higher. You also have to have a previous design background to gain entry into that course so the UX Design course that I took might get your foot in the door.

Overall, I'm grateful for Springboard and all they have to offer. I highly recommend them!

Note: The course I took was originally a Skills Track called UX Design when I was enrolled, but it's now called UX Essentials.

Well-organized intensive online boot camp covering all aspects of the data science life cycle. In addition, materials on advanced topics (NLP, recommender system, Spark, etc.) are also included in the curriculum. The weekly one-on-one coaching call with industry expert is my favorite, providing necessary guidance and keeping me motivated throughout the program. Overall, I had a nice learning journey with Springboard and appreciated all the supports along the way. If you are looking for a good online boot camp with flexible hours at a reasonable price, Springboard Data Science Career Track is a good bet.

I tried many times in the past to learn data science, but work always got in the way. My top 3 ways way that Springboard helps you. They help you focus on what is important to learn so you spend less time on learning useless information. Your mentor is able to guide you when you do not understand certain concepts. And they make you concentrate on career development which is the part I hate doing, but it is the most important. Overall, I am glad that I have taken this course because I feel confident that I have developed a great foundation to start my data science career. The rest is up to me to learn and develop myself to become even better.