Springboard

My journey started a year back when I first joined springboard. Because of my background (I have MBA, PhD and 4+ years of research experience) advisor suggested me to enroll in data scientist program even though I applied for data analyst track.  So, you will find a great support team here who will always have best interest of yours in mind right from the start. The program is not cheap but you get the full team working for you. Help is just an email away. So, after I got admitted to the program, I had to cancel my admission and it was very easy and hassle free. Later I decided to join the cohort again and was admitted without any trouble. Even though I had to change my cohort a couple of time, springboard team is very supportive and they will always respect your decision. So, I know it's expensive but program is not for money. You get support from experts in the industry. Before my interview, I needed an urgent guidance for my interview and was able to get timely help from a mentor. I shared with him job details and my resume and he provided me great tips for the interview. I am extremely happy that I joined the bootcamp. Only thing different I would suggest you to do is enroll early and start working on exercises. There are jobs out there and with the training and support from springboard, you will get the job in no time.  Read less

Going through the cybersecurity career track program at Springboard helped open me up to diverse information in the cybersecurity space. The program, especially the mentor - student relationship helped instill more knowledge of the industry into me and the program flexibility made it more fantastic. Read less

Springboard’s program is a comprehensive program for software engineers. The bulk of the course is video based instruction taught by Colt Steele. Colt’s instructions are easily digestible, although he does fail to provide adequate mistakes in his instruction to provide practice on how to find and fix bugs. The TA team does a great job of filling this gap. There is a weekly meeting with a mentor, but 30 minutes sometimes is not adequate to explain, debug, conceptualize and plan for the next week. The largest downfall is in the community. Although it is improving, YMMV when it comes to your particular cohort. Because the course is self paced, your cohort will be progress through the course at varying speeds. This makes it difficult to schedule study groups or coordinate on specific topics.  The career services team is good, but there is no defined consensus as to what Springboard defines as to the correct way to create a resume, cover letter or LinkedIn. If you stick with one career counselor throughout the entire course, you will have a better experience than bouncing around.

I recommend Springboard to aspiring developers as long as they get the correct mentor and career counselor early on in the course. Make good progress at the start of the course, because as the material gets dense, the estimated completion time for project become flawed. Read less

The cybersecurity program at Springboard is great on so many levels. As a recent high school graduate who was looking to enter the cybersecurity workforce without taking four years to do so, this bootcamp enabled me to do just that.  I was uncertain how much practical knowledge I would have after spending only 6 months in the course, but I applied myself to learning and experienced great support from my mentor in the program, which enabled me to pass the CompTIA Security+ exam on my first try. I also had no work experience besides being a barista, but the tasks that the career services team encouraged me to complete gave me confidence in my skills, and I am currently interviewing for my first tech job.  Read less

I wanted to make the switch to software engineering while also taking time off to travel. Springboard was the bootcamp that fit my needs, it gave me the flexibility to learn while on the road, is a great value, and really prepared me for the next step in my career. The curriculum is very comprehensive, but also well paced. The student community, mentor support, and student advisors make it a really great experience. Instead of feeling like you're just watching "how to code videos", you get real weekly feedback from your mentor, and you give and get feedback from other students on bigger projects as well, so there is a great feeling of community. The career coaching is also a crucially overlooked component to most bootcamps, and it really sets Springboard apart. I went from having no LinkedIn and a poor resume, to 250 connections in my network, and knowledge on networking, interview skills, and salary negotiation. My technical skills have also come a long way, you'll be amazed at how much you can learn, and I feel very well prepared for my next job. I would always recommend Springboard to anyone interested in making a switch to software development. Read less

Unlike any educational institution I’ve ever attended, springboard allowed me to finish my course on a timeline that made sense for me. I unfortunately had to take all of my extended breaks due to a variety of different personal issues. Everything from Covid, to wild fire evacuations and a death in the family. There were also good things as well – a new job after losing my previous one to Covid, but this did cut into my ability to study and focus on my school  work after working on a computer all day at work. I was emotionally and technically drained at times. I had to switch mentors in the midst of my program due to these breaks and was definitely feeling like I may not finish the course. Springboard’s advisor and mentor programs kept me chatting with their support teams and kept me motivated to finish for myself and my future. I was able to absorb knowledge on a timeframe that made sense for my learning capabilities. I feel as a springboard really allows its students to take the time they need in order to grasp the knowledge they’re sharing and that’s why I really recommend springboard. In a world with so many ups and downs and unknowns at this point, I always felt comfortable reaching out to spring forward for support. The course itself brings on a lot of reading, but the structure is really well thought out so that you can learn different phases of research and designing at a time that makes sense. Lastly, the mentor meetings on a weekly basis help me stay on track and brew really important for my progression in the course. Read less

The UI/UX program at Springboard is a complete offering, giving you the opportunity to learn every detail surrounding UX design and making you apply that knowledge to a variety of projects. From the simple design spruce ups to full-scale capstones, you perform every level of the design process in order to understand every aspect back to front. While there are some lessons that do go on a little long (i.e. lots of articles that simply repeat the same information) or slightly outdated articles, the essence of what you're learning remains the same. Overall, I would recommend this course to anyone who is interested in entering this space. Read less

It was a correct decision to learn at the Data Science Career Track program at Springboard, as I finally started getting responses from employers.
On one of the applications I was one step away from employment.
This course helps boost your chances and compete with those who has formal specialized education, such as in computer science or data science.
While a lack of formal experience through employment is still a problem, it is somewhat alleviated by the hands-on curriculum projects and the projects done after completing the course. In my feeling, completing this course gives you a credibility.
There are three main components: career coaching by people experienced in technical recruiting, mentorship by data scientists working in industry, and well organized tutorial materials. In my opinion, it would be very hard for a self-learner to achieve such pace and quality of learning.
Having to pay disciplines and ensures a good pace of learning.
Not everyone gets a good mentor. My two advices here are: 1) change the mentor if he behaves like he is your boss and only demands, and you need to spend a lot of time just to think what questions are good and bad. This could be OK only in the beginning. 2) Stick to the one who is genuinely willing to help. Springboard allows to switch to another mentor, they have some long-term selection in place.
Most career coaches are very helpful, you can meet with them roughly every week. Here my suggestion is to stay organized: write their suggestions and execute on the same day, because otherwise you will find it difficult to get back to it due to a lot of main technical learning which keeps piling up if you are not as organized.
Make sure to agree with your family members: they will miss you a lot 6 to 9 months, because they will mostly see your back while you are sitting at the computer. The skills you get are worth it, but there is still a long job search ahead after graduation in most cases.
Delve deeply into material, as there are four mock up interviews close to the end of the course.
The best ways to prepare for Data Science course is to learn Python, Statistics, and SQL in advance, and try to craft a resume and LinkedIn profile.
At the end, you learn how to extend your network, data analysis, and machine learning.
Only basic familiarity with statistics and SQL, but there are many resources in the curriculum, which you can use for training, including after graduation.
No exposure to cloud techniques, but you will become prepared to play with those on your own.
Up to two breaks are allowed, up to 3 weeks each, which helps make it in time if you like to delve deeper or have a lack of prior experience. Read less

Springboard's Software Engineering Career Track is built for people that want to switch their career path and become a software engineer. This 9-month course helps you develop skills (Python, JaveScript, etc.) necessary for looking for a job in the market. Definitely recommend it even though you are starting from scratch. Read less

The curriculum is excellently designed and does not require any programming or computer science experience for anyone to participate. I am a biologist and absolutely did not had any experience in data science. I took the Data Science prep course first, which taught me python programming in just 4 weeks. Then I enrolled on the Data Science Career Track. The course is expected to be completed in 6-9 months, so one has to be ready to invest at least 4 hours of time every day in learning. The best thing about the course is it teaches the entire curriculum using public resources, which include DataCamp, LinkedIn, Youtube, Harvard lessons and other useful public forums. This is great because you know after the course completion where to continue your learning and find resources related to a specific subject. Every unit has a number of mini-projects to practice that increase your confidence in your learning. 1 to 1 mentor calls every week is a great benefit, as you will be interacting with an industry expert to review your projects and they will help you to streamline your learning and choose a better career path. At the end of the course, you will be proficient in python programming, mastered in essential statistical concepts and you can independently work on data science projects. I strongly recommend anyone who is looking for a career in data science to opt this course, as every minute and penny is worth plus job guaranteed. Read less

This program was a lot of work, but it has been life-changing!  I feel confident going into my new career. The mentorship program was invaluable. You’ll have a portfolio with several case studies by the end of this program. It prepares you in every way so you’ll be ready for your new career.  Read less

I successfully completed springboard curriculum. It was lackluster and average as it was mostly based on other resources. Mentorship was the only worthy part of the program. Job search began where I always went above and beyond on the number of networking and jobs conditions. I also kept my own records for these applications and networks as well as log them in their own website. After 6 months, I opted for the job guarantee extension. I kept up my job guarantee. Then, couple of these to my knowledge I logged my requirements in; however, due to technical difficulties, it didn't show on their server. Let's keep in mind, I have records (emails for job applications and linked in for networks) of when I did those activities. Despite actually fulfilling these requirements, springboard basically said "oh you had technical difficulties/system glitch, that's too bad, our system if flawless, there are no issues, even though you have proof you applied to such and such job, we are going to ignore that and take this opportunity to make sure you don't qualify for job guarantee". Their job guarantee was only 6 months, I was able to keep that up for over a year. If you value your time and money, don't let the job guarantee be the factor why you choose this institution because they'll take any opportunity that arises to say that you messed up. Read less

I had an amazing experience with Springboard. I had excellent coaches and mentors who always supported me. I got so much in-depth knowledge about the targeted job industry from my mentor.  The only cons I found in 1-2 in-course activities, which are outdated and it would be great if they can upgrade. Read less

I had a really great experience overall with all aspects of the course! 
The mentors were all very genuine and helpful when talking about my interests and my goals and keeping my accountable with honest feedback. 
The community was very friendly and welcoming and I loved meeting the friends throughout the course.
I got a really great job offer before even finishing the bootcamp and I would recommend this to anyone looking to change their career!  Read less

I do not even know where to begin with my Springboard experience. I did the UX/UI career track, and I recommend going somewhere else. If I had been able to back out after that 7 day trial period without wreaking financial havoc on myself, I would have. 7 days is not NEARLY enough to see what the course will actually be like. They front-load the curriculum with SB-produced video lessons to reel you in, and after about a month you realise that's not reality.

First thing I will address is that if you are neurodivergent I HIGHLY recommend you try another bootcamp. Nearly all the coursework is article after article of the same poorly explained information, almost ZERO video lessons, and the few video tutorials the exist had NO narration. We were expected to just silently watch a video of someone doing something on Figma with zero explanation. For someone who is a very visual learner (in a VISUAL FIELD, for crying out loud), this was torturous. I have ADHD and got great grades in primary school and university (I have two degrees and made Honor roll)-- I could barely finish this course because they built the curriculum so lazily. I used every last drop of the Pauses and Freezes because my brain (especially during a damn pandemic) could not take it.

Second thing I will address further dives into the laziness of the curriculum-- the articles they've rounded up for the coursework are very nearly ALL freely available articles that can be found on Medium, Dribbble, or otherwise. Many of the articles were written in poor english and badly translated, and I ended up turning to other designers for explanations or looking things up on youtube or wikipedia. For the ENORMOUS course price of $15,000, I should not have to be looking on freaking youtube for basic explanations.

Springboard sets up their course with the Industry Design Project as the crown jewel: my IDP experience was shameful. We were supposed to be matched with a REAL COMPANY to work on a REAL client-facing project that would be the biggest entry in our portfolios. Instead, my group and I were matched with a random dude who had all three of us working on ONE singular screen for a month. We had basically nothing for our portfolios after that and we were livid. We took it to SB and demanded partial refunds which they thankfully took seriously and gave us.

The job guarantee is set up to look like it will help you (and for some people it does), but for me it ended up being incredibly predatory. SB is supposed to guarantee that you will find a job within 6 months or you don't have to pay your tuition - instead of honoring that when I reached the 6 month mark, they "offered me" to extend my job guarantee by a month so I could keep seeing my career coach. Bro, 2 things:

1) If my SB career coach hasn't been helpful in the last 6 months, they will probably not be helpful in 1 more month. Offer me better, more significant help. Offer me a new career coach, offer me access to a Udemy Figma class so I can brush up my skills, offer me a design prompt so I can put something else in my portfolio, offer me a month free access to ADPList, ANYTHING, just for God's sake: Offer me something *actually* useful to my job search.

2) Extending the job guarantee (when my career coach has not helped WHATSOEVER) does nothing but give SPRINGBOARD the opportunity to STILL get their money despite not delivering on their 6 month promise.

Predatory.

The only good thing that this course had was the mentorship-- I learned far more from my mentors than I did from the course itself, and I'm glad to still have those connections. However I will say that even that was fraught with chaos.
I expected to have one mentor who would follow me through to the end of the course that I could then use as a reference when it came time to apply to jobs- instead my first SB Mentor suddenly left for another job after my first 3 months, my second SB Mentor randomly quit for "unforeseen circumstances". My third SB Mentor was wonderful, but he felt kind of stuck for how to help me because he hadn't been around for the first major section of my coursework. So now, I have 3 "mentors" from SB that I barely got to know before they abandoned ship, and therefore have NO references who can speak to my work or experience in the course.

I am grateful that I now can pursue a much better career because of the skills I now have after Springboard, but now that I know all their curriculum is available for free on Medium, I could have gotten the same education with 75% less stress, debt, and frustration. I have friends who went to Thinkful and they loved their experience. Check that out first, or ask a lottttt of questions when you speak to SB. Read less

I have a BS in Mechanical Engineering and 2 years of experience working as an engineer. I pursued this course full time, working approximately 30-50 hours a week towards it. I was able to complete the course with Advanced ML Specialization in 5 months. I now have a job as a Machine Learning Engineer, with a base salary that is 23% higher than my previous salary.

I believe that this course is great for people who have a STEM degree and who have some technical work experience or technical project experience. If you do not have these things, I think it would be wiser to either pursue a technical degree or one of Springboard's other courses, such as their DA or DE courses. 

I rate the coursework three out of five stars. The structure of the coursework was immensely helpful in guiding my journey to learn the steps in the DS/ML workflow, and it kept me organized and disciplined in my studies. The early course material does a good job of explaining the basics of Python, SQL, and the DS workflow. However, the depth of the course material starts to lose its quality in the sections covering statistics, ML algorithms, and the specialization material. There are mini-projects related to the major algorithms (regression, classification, and clustering) and statistical concepts (CLT, AB tests, etc.), however, these sections sometimes skip over critical details that are commonly discussed in technical interviews (such as assumptions of linear regression). Additionally, the ML specialization did not provide projects related to the topics of deployment. Overall I would have liked to see more depth and detail in the later content. 

I will add that most of the content is either coursework on DataCamp or proprietary Jupyter Notebooks created by Springboard. Many of my peers agreed that the DataCamp coursework does not retain well since they are simple fill-in-the-blank exercises. The notebooks are more useful since they show practical examples of how an algorithm or concept would be applied, but overall the content has a perceived low value since the DataCamp membership can be had for a low price.

The mentorship was also hit-or-miss. I was lucky to have a mentor with a background in statistics, so he was able to explain some of the advanced concepts that I really needed help with understanding. Some of my peers had mentors with backgrounds in MLE or analytics, and they were not of much use to my peers. Therefore I would say that the value of the mentor is dependent on luck.

I believe that the true value of the course comes in career support, portfolio projects, and the alumni network. Springboard actually does a great job of aggregating good articles for how to pursue a career in DS, how to tailor your resume, and how to network. The career coaches are very experienced in recruiting and HR practices, so they give great advice when it comes to resume design and how to approach interviews. The course also includes mock interviews for behavioral, coding, project presentation, and general DS interviews, which are invaluable in preparing for real interviews.

The portfolio projects are vital when it comes to catching the eyes of hiring managers, so I would recommend tailoring those to the companies you want to work for. Most of all, I found value in the alumni network. I was able to secure a couple of interviews easily because I reached out to Springboard alumni at companies that were hiring.

I would recommend Springboard to anyone who is looking to change careers, but I would only recommend this DS course for individuals who have a technical background since companies typically look for some form of technical background for this type of role. As mentioned previously, I would recommend individuals with little to no background to pursue another path with a lower barrier to entry, such as Data Analytics or Data Engineering. Read less

Before choosing Springboard I researched probably over 40 bootcamps. I ended up choosing them because they offered a job guarantee, taught a well rounded, modern full stack developer course, and because they did not offer income share agreements but instead a flat tuition fee. I went at a slightly slower pace than recommended and ended up using some free extension but completed the course nonetheless and received 2 job offers 6 weeks after finishing. The program was adjusted while I was in it to evolve to the most modern standards of technology. I was matched with a mentor that spent extra time with me every week to ensure I was understanding the concepts and staying on track to be successful. The support team was extremely prompt at replying and fixed any issue that arose very quickly. I'd highly recommend this course to anyone trying to make the switch into tech! Read less

Springboard’s UI/UX Design curriculum was jam-packed with helpful articles, videos, and exercises to teach me the ins and outs of UI design at my own pace. I was able balance my full-time job in finance with learning what I need to in order to make my transition to the field of UI/UX design. Even more helpful and exciting were the four major projects that I completed over the course of 9 months which put my design skills to work after honing them through tutorials and mini-projects. I was able to go through the full-circle process of creating mock mobile apps and work with a client with a team of fellow Springboard students. This was the perfect way to prepare me for “the real world” as a designer. I came out with 4 great pieces to start building my design portfolio. 
The most beneficial part of the program was having weekly calls with my mentor (an experienced designer) who I developed a great relationship with. I looked forward to them every week, getting great feedback about my projects plus advice and insight about the industry. Career coach calls throughout the program definitely help you prepare for the job search, even if you have a good resume and LinkedIn from the start like I did. 
Springboard really solidified that a UI designer is 100% the career that I want to transition to. The job search is always daunting, but I feel confident that I’ll land a job in the near future and finally transition from finance to UI design, getting back into a creative field where I truly enjoy what I do day-to-day. Thank you Springboard!! Read less