BrainStation

Great experience! I wanted to start on a design path, put all my creative skills to work! There's a lot to cover in such a short time, you'll definitely need to keep finding resources to learn more, but the classes were very helpful in building fundamental knowledge. I'm more confident now, though I know there's a lot of hard work ahead. I really enjoy the actual UX work, so I'm pretty excited to continue. Great instructors, patient and happy to answer any questions you have. I'd recommend asking about real life experiences too!  Read less

I completed the bootcamp over the summer of 2021 and had an extremely enjoyable experience and have since landed my dream role. The entire educator team is extremely knowledgeable and supportive. Their passion for UX is infectious! The coursework and assignments for the first 3 weeks are relatively chill but the intensity ramps up quickly. With that said, the assignments are manageable if you fully utilize in class work periods. I completed this bootcamp while working 10 hours a week.  This bootcamp gives you a detailed overview of industry standards and tools, though you might need to dedicate a few hours each week to your own self learning to truly get a firm grasp of the design tools (like Figma). Yes, it's possible to learn UX on your own, but the value of a bootcamp is the accountability and guidance you receive from the instructors and career specialists. Plus, you will graduate with a fully formed portfolio to send off for job applications. The career support you receive during and following graduation is extremely valuable. Mina, the Career Specialist, goes above and beyond to support you in your journey to landing a job in addition to equipping you with the skills needed to network, maximize LinkedIn, and find your potential next roles further down the line. Read less

Educators are pretty good, but come off annoyed to be asked questions about what they are teaching. All and all they are good teachers.

The disappointment is that you can learn all of this much much cheaper. I signed up because the marketing for the career accelerator Program was unreal. “We’ll send your info to 5000+ partners upon graduation.” When I asked about it, I was ignored completely. The career accelerator program is nothing more than moral support as you are bombarded with declining offers and a few links to webinars in a slack group. I feel incredibly mislead, and out $15k for a service thaw was worth no more than $5k. Save yourself the money and take a course on uDemy. With the recession, the likeliness of getting a job is how well you know someone who can get you in.  Read less

This is a very thorough Bootcamp where you will learn so much! It starts out a little slow and then really ramps up in terms of workload. Be prepared to block off 2 months completely to work on coursework. I had to decline almost all invites outside of the course because the workload is so heavy. In terms of curriculum, there is a large portion given to user experience research which is valuable knowledge but there is less time given to technical skill learning in softwares such as Figma. To learn technical skills you will still be YouTubing or searching outside of the course. With that said, although I did want to learn more UI execution skills, I don't think I could have taught myself the depth of UX information I learned on my own so it was good to have it forced taught to me and then, in my own time, I can fine-tune my technical skills.  Read less

Dont go here. They might look fancy, they might sound like they have a good curriculum, they might tell you about all the job support they give. You wont get any one of the three - at least no one from my cohort has. The only thing worth mentioning is the work-like experience that you get when they give you projects to complete - but other schools do it way better.  Read less

I enjoyed Digital Marketing course. The Instructors Joshua and Narsingh were very good with your exampled experiences in their own work environment.  The content provided was full of information to help us better understand the course. 
I am very excited to use what I learned.

Read less

I came onto the course with very little prior experience in web dev, I had touched on html and css. The course is well structured but very fast-paced, given it being a bootcamp that was to be expected! The educators and teaching assistants were very knowledgable and provided plenty of relevant resources for us to refer to. We had a lot of support throughout the course and one-on-one time every day if needed. 

I wasn't expecting there to be much career support but I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of content and support they did provide in helping us to revamp our resumes, LinkedIn profiles, discover our 'stories' and prep for interviews. We had one-on-one feedback on our resumes and excellent tips on how to edit to appeal to the tech field. 

There were several guest speakers from various companies and disciplines which were good for motivation and inspiration. My only negative comment is that there was no one who had a similar journey of doing a bootcamp and entering into the tech field. I feel this would have been more relevant for us. 

One thing I would recommend if deciding to enrol in the web dev bootcamp is to cover the topics as much as you can beforehand. There is very little time to review and go over the content throughout the course, so this prior knowledge will be very beneficial.

The only thing I felt I missed out on was not getting to interact with my peers and other cohorts as much as the in-person courses. But, I still made some valuable connections through the online bootcamp.  Read less

I made the transition into UX from engineering and really thankful that I found the team at Brainstation. The curriculum is intense but equips you with all you need to make the switch into UX. There is support from the educators throughout the program and there is plenty of practical learning experience to be harnessed. The career support is available well after the program ends. Be ready to learn on the fly and take in a lot of material. You will save yourself time by covering the Figma basics prior to the bootcamp. All in all, you will be well-supported in the program and there are lot of resources available to make use of. Be mentally prepared to dive right in, this program will deliver what you make out of it. Be mindful that class sizes are readily increasing which can limit the amount of time spent per student but I found that educators and TAs were always willing to make time. With the right amount of work and discipline, you will be well-equipped for a career change.  Read less

Even though the class was online our Educators did a really great job of creating an engaging classroom environment. There was able opportunity to meet fellow students during labs. It would have been nice if there was an opportunity built in to have more social interactions and get to know the other students on a smaller scale. Overall though, with the coffee and conversations, group work, industry projects, labs etc there was time to meet other students. 

Obviously, a very intense program - more thank you think, but that is also dependent on your worth ethic and what you want to put into your projects. Great educators and Teaching Assistance. Course material felt relevant and I appreciated using current industry tools and prinicples. Read less

My experience as a graduate from BrainStation's Data Science online bootcamp surpassed my expectations. 

First and foremost, I found that the curriculum was well structured and well organized. The educators and teaching assistants always had the time either during class or office hours to address any questions or concerns. With ample amount of time dedicated to applying and practicing the materials in conjunction with project based deliverables; the curriculum provides a robust structure in helping to assimilate the concepts covered in each section. 

Outside of the program, BrainStation also provides students with the opportunity of gaining industry exposure through guest speakers and an Industry Project to showcase your learnings since the start of the program. 

Overall, I would highly recommend the Data Science online bootcamp to anyone who ultimately wishes to pursue a career in this domain. Read less

A really valuable course! I almost didn’t take it due to the cost but I believe the networking and industry experience makes it worth it. I’ve taken other ux courses and while they gave the fundamentals, the brainstation bootcamp really let’s you apply the fundamentals you learn on the go. Really fast paced but rewarding  Read less

I took Product Management with Brainstation in Winter 2022. The teachers were experienced business professionals working within the field that were able to bring their relevant experiences to the course forum. 

This course would be well suited to someone looking for a strong introduction to the frameworks of product management, and would be a great course for someone looking to improve their business sense. This course may be less relevant for students already with a strong business background, as some concepts do indeed stay on the higher level. 

I was impressed by the students that participated in the course! Overall, there were a wide variety of professionals from different backgrounds, that brought good discussion and questions to the table. 

I would recommend BrainStation!  Read less

BrainStation's online web development bootcamp was a good start to begin and accelerate my developer journey. I learned a lot of the fundamentals needed to enter the job market.
The instructors and TAs made the experience amazing. They were super helpful and would go the extra mile to answer any questions you may have which made it easy to learn a lot in a short period of time.  
 The syllabus and content was great as well as it covers front-end and back-end materials to help you build full stack applications. However, you do have to learn a lot outside of the bootcamp as well to keep your skills sharp and be job ready. It would be great if the program incorporated practicing coding interviews and coding assessments as well as this was used for screening for a lot of jobs out there.
I found the job support a bit lacking. A lot of the jobs advertised to us were above entry level and out of our expertise. Having a strong referral network and a mentorship system in place for Brainstation alumni and new graduates would make this process much easier. The entry level market for junior developers will only get more competitive and more support will be necessary to ensure that graduates are prepared.  Read less

I took the Saturday course and it was an intense 7 hour class every week for 5 weeks. If you have more time during the week I would recommend taking the course in a longer amount of time. The teachers were amazingly helpful and knowledgeable. Any time I felt lost or confused I would not hesitate to ask and would always get a very detailed answer from Jessica! 
The only low rating I left was Job Assistance because there were a few slides about how to get a job and what to put and design a portfolio. Unfortunately from what I could tell there was no special database of jobs available for graduates as with many Colleges and Universities.  Read less

An ok course overall! I'm half and half on my experience. And if you were like me, incessantly wondering and contemplating on your career path, hopefully my anecdotes help! 

TLDR; As with anything, there are pros and cons to any experience, a lot of it I was honestly disappointed, but I put in a lot of the work and effort during and after the course which led me to a great job I have now and am very satisfied with. Bits of what I learned in the course, I use today at my job. You get what you put in! 

Personally, I already have design experience (both from university and work), so a lot of lectures felt repetitive for me. I can see the course being very helpful for those without such experience yet. But for myself, it was a bit frustrating.

Pros
It's been a few months now since I've finished the course, and I did luckily get it from the grant so I may have certain biases overall. 

• One important thing I got out of the program is boosting my confidence especially when it came to presenting and group work. They did a good job in exposing everyone with that, which again, is a big part of being a UX/Product Designer. It was tricky to manage virtual group work, but it definitely helped me with being 'comfortable with being uncomfortable'. A big part also helped train me to be left to my own resources and figure things out as I go, which honestly is a big part of real world work.
• The people! The people I met were amazing. Obviously a select few I really worked well with, but you do sometimes end up struggling with varying levels of expertise which was honestly a bit frustrating. Half of me wished we were grouped specifically in certain pods with equal levels of expertise to push each other. I was there to learn and push myself. Not necessarily have to feel like I'd do a lot of the leg work. But overall, I made great connections from the course, who I occasionally still reach out to.
• I networked like crazy and was able to reach out someone in the industry who was very helpful in my job hunt phase. For the Hackathon, we presented our work to their company and I was able to connect with someone there and even remain friends with them to this day! Guess a good thing is that Brainstation seems to have such a niche group of people with a shared experience so it's quite easy to reach out to others who went through the same thing. 

Cons

• Most course work and grading of projects I felt skewed more on 'Product Design' and the visual side. A lot of the feedback I got was also more on visual improvement (I really didn't care much about it visuals...). I personally wanted to learn more about user research, strategy and working with devs. All of those, you get exposed to probably just 10% of each. 
• The grading system was questionable. I was surprised previous TA's, who were probably almost the same level of knowledge as us in the cohort, were the ones grading the course. Again, as an already working professional, I cared very little about my numerical grades. I needed output to add into my portfolio, but didn't feel like I really produced the right type of work to present. If you're straight out of university from a more rigorous grading system, don't sweat Brainstation's system of grading. 
• Hackathon was laughable.. I was honestly excited to be part of a hackathon, sadly just felt like a a bunch of wild dogs placed in a room left to chew on the same bone. Little to no guidance there despite having some help from TA's. There were also SO many groups presenting, that it felt useless to present to industry professionals. Again, it may vary on the type of groups and cohort, but mine was definitely very frustrating, dealing with so many groups and varying levels and experience. 
• The career side of it all was also questionable. I personally put in more effort networking online (ADP List, cold emails and reach outs, etc.) I did not find any of the career success efforts useful. If anything, a confidence booster "You're doing all the right things! Keep going!" Having gone through so much job hunting, do NOT follow their resume template. Just submit it as a requirement, sure, but to stand out, focus on your own branding and how you want to present yourself as a designer. Tips in terms of resume content was somewhat useful, but still felt very rushed to balance this with course requirements. Kind of wish the resume/career success side more came after all course work.
• The resume and final requirements you submit, I found were only to market THEM as a bootcamp for potential new students. I didn't create the video at all, and put in minimum effort to my final requirements for the 'Demo Day' page. Honestly, what kind of recruiter would even look at EACH student profile? And watch a 10 min video for EACH student? It made zero sense to make a video at all. 

All in all, Brainstation did help me get to where I am now, which I'm grateful for. But I (clearly) still have certain feelings about it. I would be quite frustrated if I had to pay the full tuition fee...  Read less

I signed up for one of the UX bootcamps in 2021 and slowly since graduating the program I have realized that BrainStation is just into the stats. 

Firstly, I will say that you only get what you want out of the program. The program is very hectic, fast paced and it can be tough but if you want to take it all in, you have to be present at every lab and lecture to get the most of it. You will be equipped with the foundational skills required to get a job but my recommendation would be to keep learning more after the program because it doesn't cover everything. The instructors are amazing, I will give you that. They're supportive and have great background experience in the industry and are happy to share their stories. 

BrainStation really sells their programs well. You graduate with massive cohorts and then they bring in other students and pump those grads out too. They do make it clear that you aren't promised a job or anything after graduation but they do offer assistance post grad. You are put into a slack channel where they share job postings from Indeed for example... we can do that ourselves. The "job assistance" is a joke. Throughout the program, you do attend workshops for resume writing and cover letter writing and interviewing, however, UX interviews are very different. They don't have any specific teachings for that so you go into these interviews blindly. BrainStation will take full credit for you getting a job, meanwhile, it was all of your hard work.  I got a job quickly after but that's because I worked really hard to expand on my skills and learnings and changed my portfolio entirely. Yes, they provide you with the curriculum but not everyone is suited for the industry even if they graduate. Some take ages to get a job and they're not getting hired just because they have BrainStation on their resume. BrainStation hardly supports start up businesses, you will notice they mostly partner with large companies. You think BrainStation could appreciate a startup more as they once were a small business too. 

Would I recommend BrainStation for its curriculum and instructors? Yes. But if I were asked about job assistance and just the overall experience, I wouldn't. The cost is far too much too. 

I would consider other bootcamps. 


Read less