GW Boot Camps

I am a little over halfway through the 24 week full stack web development boot camp.

Everything has been great, and I have received a lot of support.

• The instructors are experienced, humorous, and engaging. They work full time in web development.
• The teaching assistants help us if we get stuck on an exercise during class or on homework.
• The student success manager keeps the overall program on track and checks in with each student periodically to ensure they are having a positive experience.
• The career support staff has helped us improve our LinkedIn profiles, resumes, and elevator speech. They have also facilitated some practice behavioral interviews. This is the best career support I have ever received.

Before enrolling, I was wary of the boot camp model. I did a lot of research and talked to two friends who went to GW. I wanted to make sure this was legitimate. My fears were unfounded. This has turned out to be a worthwhile experience.

My section (about 20 students) meets Monday and Wednesday nights 6:30 - 9:30 PM. There is another section on Tuesday and Thursday nights 6:30 - 9:30 PM. Both sections come together on Saturday 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM. Saturdays are usually focused on group projects and breakout activities.

Periodically, I have had to switch from a Wednesday night to a Thursday night, and it has worked smoothly. The students and instructor in the other section are welcoming and supportive.

I usually attend in person. Hoever, some people usually attend remotely via the live video feed. If we are going to do a group project, they encourage us to attend in person.

Most of my classmates are younger than me, but they have been very welcoming.

Each week, I work 40 hours at my job, attend 10 hours of boot camp classes, and do 10+ hours of studying and homework. There is so much to learn that I could spend 20+ hours on studying and homework. I wish I had more time. The homework and projects are not easy, but I have learned a lot.

I cannot think of anything that the boot camp could do to improve.

I decided to change my career after being in the service/hospitality industry for almost twenty years. I decided and wrote down two things. The first was Data Analyst. The second, well. Yet, the bootcamp I joined is a twenty four week course which sounded exceptional as opposed to a twelve week course. I didn't have a background in technology, mainly in POS systems such as Micros, PosiTouch and recently Toast. I can scan the S' of something, yet when it came down to coding I didn't know s'. It took a bit to catch up and truthfully I am still 25% there. I suggest that if you decide to this course of action that you do. The world needs people to change the world of those who try to harm it. And this is one of the ways.

The GW UI/UX Design bootcamp is challenging and effective. You will complete this program having senior-level designer knowledge if you take it upon yourself to ensure you do the hard work of making sure you learn how to do everything this course expects of you. This program provides a thorough foundation of knowledge and covers every base. When I look at websites now on the internet, I see how much I know now, and I see what other designers didn't learn properly. My recommendation for prospective students is to take the beginner and advanced Figma courses (offered through Figma) either as you progress through the bootcamp or before the bootcamp start date. It's not absolutely necessary, but if you're older like me and/or if you don't already work in tech, you will especially benefit from it. I highly recommend this bootcamp! 

Fast-paced class, but it’s expected because you learn the skills to be a well-rounded candidate in the industry. Data analytics is becoming a standard skill in all industries now and from this program I was able to apply my new skills at my current job and was able to identify opportunities for improvement. The instructors were top notch! Aside from the instructors being knowledgeable and experienced they were very committed to helping you succeed. From experience if you fall behind, do not fake it and do not wait, just ask for help. It’s better to spend the time going over with help than falling into a three hour rabbit hole.

The Cybersecurity Bootcamp at George Washington University is a fantastic program for anyone interested in pursuing a career in cybersecurity. The curriculum is presented in a clear and easy-to-understand way, and the instructors are approachable and knowledgeable. What sets this program apart is the focus on practical skills, which gives students the confidence to apply what they learn in real-world scenarios. Overall, I found the program to be an excellent investment and highly recommend it to anyone interested in this exciting and growing field.

The Beginning:

My first week in Cyber Security Bootcamp seemed to bring a lot of information to take in but I felt I was able to have it all under control. I was changing careers with no IT background but was ready to embark on my new path. Around week 3, I started to get frustrated as everything was moving fast, looking at what syntax to apply, being exposed to new concepts, security programs, confidentiality, risk management, and many other tools within the Cyber Security world.
With my frustration, I was too embarrassed to ask for help because it left me feeling vulnerable with the other students in my class who I safely assumed knew more than I did and later learned we were all in the same boat.

Communication is key:

I thought, here I am a smart woman, I have a Bachelor's Degree in Criminal Justice, a Master's in Terrorism Studies and I can't figure out this Cyber information. Something was not processing in my brain. I reached out to my Student Success Manager, Gemini Sanford who was truly was amazing. Gemini took time to speak to me, hear me out and understood exactly where I was coming from but wanted me to see the process through with her support and guidance. Gemini stayed in constant communication with me to ensure I was receiving the support I needed to succeed. After speaking to Gemini, I understood I had to do my part which was to reach out to my instructor, and teacher assistants if I needed assistance as they would not know I needed help if I didn't say something. 


Within the 30 weeks of boot-camp, we had many activities, some of which we worked on individually and other actives we worked on in group settings. Over the weeks we got to know one other and looked forward to each class session. I learned to ask questions, however, I have to admit my frustration grew but it was because I was being challenged in an unfamiliar area. 

Our instructor, Dan Iannoti did an amazing job to teach this course as he would relate a lot of the material to his personal experience in the Cyber Security Industry which allowed us to understand and process the information. Dan has an extensive background in Cyber Security and has been a great inspiration and leader to our class. I appreciate his willingness to always extend his assistance before and after class. 

Erica Watkins and Anthony Kwon, our teaching assistants were an incredible team. They were patient, extremely helpful and offered assistance before and after class hours. I would have not made it without you. 

Conclusion

If you asked me in the beginning if I would have seen myself completing this course, I would have said no. I had great class team mates. My experience has allowed me to feel empowered within the Cyber Security industry that is ever-growing. This experience has made me confident and continues to be amazing with the ongoing support that I have with the staff at GW Bootcamp. 

I would like to thank Gemini, Dan, Erica, and Anthony for not giving up on me, and knowing I could make it and see this boot camp course through. 

Thank you for reading.

Elsa Clark

It was a really great experience to complete the GW boot camp. The instructor, Dartanion Williams, is a very wonderful and professional person who always is there for students. He just goes beyond your expectation to make sure every single student feels confident about topics. The program covers up-to-date coding and data science topics which can help you feel confident transitioning to a new career or make your current coding career even more solid. I'd suggest this boot camp to anyone who loves to get into a data science career. 

This bootcamp was fantastic! The curriculum was well-structured and covered a series of key skills. The instructor and teaching assistants were knowledgable and dedicated. The modules and courses were hands-on and easy to follow. It accommodated the needs for beginners who are new to this field but also provided challenges to learners who have more background knowledge. During the six months of learning, it was intense, but you had concrete goals to work towards. After the bootcamp, you would gain skills to solve problems and perform projects independently. The overall experience was great and you got so much out of the bootcamp!

I am deeply appreciative of the multiple levels of academic support I received in the Data Analytics Bootcamp. The data analytics “bootcamp” program, by definition, can be formidable.  It becomes increasingly technical and complex.  And it builds on itself, so failure to learn topics at one level have potential to compound at successive levels.  And the fast pace of the program truly never relented.  For good reason then, not everyone makes it through (that’s my understanding).   I came to the program with an undergraduate degree in liberal arts (political science and history majors) from a small liberal arts college and an MBA (focus on strategy and accounting/finance) from a top 20 nationally ranked program.  As part of the MBA program, I had had classes in statistics, forecasting, and operations research.  Beyond that, I also brought more than a decade as a securities investment research analyst and another decade as an investment banker / M&A banker, primarily covering and/or serving the software industry.  In fact, over the decade prior to my data analytics program, I focused on software companies that provide large-scale data analytics and data management capabilities. However, despite my education and experience, which on the surface seem like they should have given me a more resilience in handling the course, I nonetheless experienced serious imposter syndrome during the program. First, I suppose it could be related to my own expectations, which were admittedly high but also self-defeatingly perfectionist.   Second, there seemed to be issues unique to my learning style.  As an example, on some occasions we as a class installed and configured software necessary for the lesson.  However, if your system didn’t install as intended, you could find yourself unable to replicate the exercises and only able to watch what others were doing – or you could work to trouble shoot the installs with the class TAs in a separate breakout room.  Either way, there was a decent chance of falling behind.  For my learning style, it was often enough problematic and frustrating, and it sometimes reached the point of panic.   Third, we would routinely break out into groups to try to use code we had just learned.  Always, someone in the groups would share their screen, and often that individual would power through the solution.  Not everyone would collaborate.  But, from my perspective, many seemed to arrive at the right answer rather quickly.  Often seemingly far more quickly than I.  By contrast, I sometimes wouldn’t catch “small” errors – be they syntax, flow order, logic, etc.  I would fail to remember something or another.  Why?  I could have been tired at the end of that weekday evening, or sleep deprived that weekday morning, or whatever.  Only over time did I realize that my perception wasn’t correct, but not before I became gun-shy in groups. Fourth, I failed to credit real accomplishments.  Right from the first homework assignment, I seemed to perform well on the homework assignments.  I provided myself adequate time to take the assignments as far as I was able.  I got reasonably good at finding answers via Google search, specialty sites like Stack Overflow, specialty articles on Medium or KDnuggets.  I also advocated for myself.  I was a frequent user of AskBCS learning assistance service.  (I never really synched with my first tutor, but I know several of my classmates found good support from their tutors.)  Beyond that, the instructor and the TA staff were incredibly generous with their time.  They often scheduled remedial group sessions above and beyond the class requirements to make sure laggards caught up.  Early on, I attributed my good grades as beginner’s luck.  Then I attributed it to all the support.  The doubts kept creeping into my mind.   The issues quickly compounded, and I began to wonder if I even belonged in the same room as my peers.  The feeling of inadequacy became so strong that once or twice I didn’t join my in-class break-out groups.   Thankfully, the instructor and the TAs didn’t let me fall through the cracks.  I strongly suspect that in other similar programs, it could have been so easy for someone like me to fall through the cracks.  Fortunately, the instructor quickly caught onto something not quite going right for me.  In a private breakout room, he asked me what was going on, so I told him.  With tons of positivity and infectious good humor, the instructor had me walk through what I knew, proving to me that I had learned something after all.  And he bridged the gap to the solution, which also helped me understand just how not far off the mark I actually was.  Obviously, I cannot speak for what the instructor did for others in my class in private one-on-one meetings, but if those encounters and interactions were anything like what he did for me, it was truly great. I also observe that the instructor had several former students attend our classes and presentations.  Their stories and interactive feedback were helpful.  In particular, they related when they began to gain confidence with various languages and particular data analytics skills.  For me, their comments helped to settle nerves and to provide solid grounding for expectations. I did great with Excel, then I “survived” VBA.  In truth, I did reasonably well, but not without sweating through the steep learning curve –a cycle that seemed to repeat with each major learning hurdle.  I hit a wall in Python, but after I fumbled briefly, my performance quickly improved.  I began to really “get” how to do sophisticated data analytics with Python and Pandas.  Then I scorched through SQL, that is until we hit ETL, whereupon I was brought back to earth.  (I later learned there was even a ton more to learn on the DBA side.)  Then I hit several new humbling walls as we launched into JavaScript, some number of associated libraries, web applications, etc.  Other major walls included becoming proficient at passing variables between functions and other chunks of code, using routes in Python to interoperate with JavaScript, etc.  Even using GitHub as a group repository.  While it was all humbling, it was also a great learning experience. It is hard to explain what happened with me.  Despite acing my individual graded assignments, I just was not feeling strong.  I just was not convinced I would be able to competently execute with the tools I was learning.  I was not giving myself legitimate credit.  I so doubted my ability that I could not imagine hiring myself.  I was becoming my own worst critic.   The imposter syndrome gnawing at me from the inside ultimately led to a real crisis.  I feared I would be an impediment to any group I might be assigned on our big, graded group assignments.  And the three group projects were major milestones, were more heavily weighted than individual homework, and were mandatory.  My runaway angst reached the point that I offered to take a failing grade rather than pull a group down.   My fear was no longer a simple issue that could be dealt with by patient but firm encouragement.  With a large class to manage, the instructor decided to involve the student success manager (SSM).  At that moment, my impulse was to flee, to run away despite strongly desiring to be a valuable, integral part of a team.  Thankfully, the SSM, the instructor, and the teams I would be involved with handled me remarkably well.  I was given a safe outlet to explain my fears.  On one occasion, I was given the option of another path -- to go it alone.  And when I opted to return to the original group, the instructor and SSM facilitated my reintegration with the team, despite real awkwardness of the event.  Taken together, these steps allowed me to continue to learn to do data analysis programming in group settings. I ended up with high marks for the entire program and, I think, respect from my peers.  Significantly, on the final, most important group project, my work turned out to be critical and well executed.  (On completion, I journaled the details of my contributions on that project, concluding with, “It was really me.” I also want to point out that the supportive interactions I describe between myself, the SSM, and the instructor occurred multiple times.  That included a number of follow-up checks.  The SSM handled me with the perfect amount of understanding and encouragement.  In the end, I was disabused of my unjustified fears.  Their timely, calibrated support was critical. I suspect I could have been crushed for cause by a different, less understanding, less patient instructor or student success manager.  I am deeply grateful to them and the groups I worked with for giving me a chance to contribute meaningfully, while I wrestled down imposter syndrome.  They gave me the opportunity ultimately to recognize that I produced solid, respectable work that I can take meaningful pride in. I leave the program with solid data analytics skills – and a strong foundation on which to build and shine.  But I also leave the program much stronger emotionally, and much better able to tackle imposter syndrome should I ever encounter it again.