Avocademy

I couldn't recommend Avocademy enough! I tell my spouse at least once a week (or more) about how happy I am to have signed up with this program.

I chose Avocademy because it was an affordable UX bootcamp for me and the services they offered (especially the one-on-one mentorship) was unbeatable. From the resources, content, and feedback I received, I learned so much! The mentors are nice, approachable, and gave great feedback/advice. Before moving onto the next assignment, your work had to be approved by a mentor, which I liked, because I felt like I wasn't just being passed along. Someone actually cared about the work I did and wanted to help to make it better! Yes, sometimes it was frustrating because I would have to make multiple changes to my work due to different mentor feedback, but honestly, one mentor may have caught something another didn't, so it was nice to have that variation in feedback.

I am currently in career jumpstart and just started the job hunting process. It was great collaborating with team members to work on client projects and it gave a sense of "real-life" experience. Avocademy prepared me well for the job hunt (already on day 3: received multiple recruiter emails/calls and have interviews lined up). Maca is great to work with, she's super approachable and really cares about your success! 

Overall, Avocademy really did set me up for success and I couldn't be happier with this decision!

Avocademy has easily been a top 5 life decision thus far! During my senior year of college, I was still lost until I came across Avocademy, they saw my strengths and explained to me how I could utilize them as a designer. Completing the course was smooth and I felt like everything I needed to know as a beginner was there and easy to digest. The mentoring is top-notch and the student-specific feedback is one of the best features of the course. A year later, I secured a paid internship as a Product Design Intern and am incredibly thankful for Avocademy. This program completely readjusted the trajectory of my life, and my future, and most importantly I can comfortably say the future of my family is secure. 

So I just finished the job search part of Career Jumpstart or CJ at Avocademy. The overall process was fun, difficult at times, and such an amazing process overall. It's broken down into two parts: projects and job search.

Projects
So for this part they post projects for people to submit for and then connect you with other grads from Foundations on projects with real world stakeholders. You work as a team to complete projects to finish out your portfolio and sometimes can even lead a project later on. I worked on three projects which allowed me to get a greater feel for what it's like to work on a real design team and a real world project. It also helped me grow my UX/UXR skills and find an area of focus for my career search. Each project is different and can be something like a website evaluation and design recommendation to creating a brand new product from scratch. Now these projects can be intense at times, so I would strongly suggest doing one at a time at first. I did two projects at once because I wasn't working and it was fun but challenging at times due to the workload. Most people finish projects in about 2 months and then begin the job search portion which can last about 6 months but people have been finding jobs sooner.  Big takeaway for this part is to communicate with your team about your real world time constraints and things that come up. Communicate, communicate, communicate. 

Job Search
The second part is the job search and they help you with mentor calls to prep for interviews, resume reviews, how to work through design challenges, and more. There's also a weekly call for job seekers to talk about struggles and lessons learned which was super informative and encouraging. I applied to just shy of 130 jobs my first week (they tell you to apply to 160 in your first month) and I think it really is great advice. I started interviewing pretty soon after I started and just got a job at a great company that I'm super excited about. I had a number of years in the job market before this but I know a large part in what got me the job was what I learned from the projects I did. I was able to talk about how my experiences, good and bad, from those taught me things that would set me up for success as a researcher for the company.  I am incredibly grateful for Avocademy and CJ. 

Great program. Currently in my senior year of college as well as this program and was able to land a job 6 weeks before my college graduation. Worked on 3 projects over about a 4-6 month period with real clients as a UX designer with a team of other designers. This was combined with constant mentorship, design, portfolio and resume reviews, and they helped me redesign projects that I had completed at other UX design internships/jobs. Very lenient with me being in college and not being able to dedicate as many hours weekly. Landed an 85k job offer 3.5 weeks after I offically started the job search process. Mentors are amazing, the other designers are all in similar positions as you and many resources are provided to help you along. Would recommend this program and Avocademy Foundations to anyone! 

Overall, an amazing and positive experience with Avocademy and joining Career Jumpstart (CJ) afterwards. I don't think I would be able to land a job without CJ! The mentors are absolutely so helpful and Maca is incredible for providing the job support you are looking for. I love the CJ course because I had the opportunity to work on MULTIPLE real client work and in a team setting which helped continually build my UX/UI skills AND soft skills. Additionally, the CJ course offers mock interviews that I could schedule weekly to build my confidence during interviews and also resume and portfolio reviews. Honestly, this was the best decision and investment I have ever made and I am so incredibly happy that I chose Avocademy! I was able to find a job within 3 weeks after completing my portfolio in CJ. Highly HIGHLY recommend it!