Galvanize

I was a student in the Galvanize Full-Stack Web development program in 2015. I really enjoyed attending this program and felt extremely privileged to get in. It was an incredible learning environment that fostered intense sense of community and facilitated an amazing level of learning.  So those are some of those pros! 

Now on to some other pros...the breadth and depth of topics that are covered in this program is incredible. It is extremely intense but highly rewarding. Probably the best educational experience I have ever had. I have attended undergrad and grad school and this was very similar in my estimation to my grad school experience. You had to manage your own time wisely and apply yourself. They provided lots of resources, lots of exercises lots, lots of direct 1:1 support, projects, experientials, mentorships...tons and tons of things. They also covered the latest technologies at the time. They provide alumni workshops after you graduate that are essential in my experience of getting hired. I think the best thing about Galvanize was not the curriculum or format as much as it was the quality of people there. They are invested earnestly in you. You form real relationships that are the foundation of everything you learn. They also are committed to building a learning community, I learned just as much from the others in my cohort as I did the instructors. I can only speak to my instructors, but they were all incredibly gifted and wonderful people. You also have to recognize quickly that everyone brings different skill levels to the table at the beginning. Comparing yourself to your cohort colleagues is not helpful. You must compete against yourself. Everyone brought value to the learning process. Some of these people have become some of my best friends. Everybody in my cohort had a job within 6 months.

So now to cons, the cost is high. You cannot really have a traditional job while doing this either, it is a full-time 40-60 hr/week job. You also will not see your family much during this program. The pace and intensity are incredibly high. You do get more out of it the more you do and the more you immerse yourself in the development world. I would say another con was that during my time there, there seemed to be continually modifying the curriculum and changing it. Alas, this is very much akin to the world of software development so it might be a pro also. Keeps you limber and flexible and adaptive.  At times, disputes occurred with colleagues during group projects, but this was good practice for having "fierce conversations" that are necessary in the real world. It was definitely frustrating at points, but that is bound to happen when so much is being thrown at you. It is hard! But highly rewarding. It was worth so much more to my life and my family's future than the dollar cost. I would attend again in a heartbeat.

I completed the course and got a job despite Galvanize's management doing their damnedest to ruin our learning experience. During the course they removed an instructor from our classroom because they decided to start another cohort while not having the staff for it and needed to take one of our's. They brought in a manager to talk to our class about this but she talked down to us as if we were children instead of adults who had invested $21K each in this course. They scheduled construction right outside of our classroom to begin in the middle of the course. Luckily, that got delayed until after we graduated but it did not appear to be because of our concerns. The two very well qualified and brilliant instructors we had are no longer with the program and Galvanize had to hire and then fire one instructor because they were so desperate for an instructor that they hired a sexist fellow who had learned skills from online tutorials. This showed a complete lack of respect for students as we are investing a great deal of time and money into this program but they could not properly vet and hire a competent instructor.  As for the Outcomes Coordinator, he is more interested in ping pong than helping someone get a job. You want a job? Get it yourself. He didn't seem invested in our futures. The most I heard from him was when he wanted my starting salary so he could report that back with his numbers. Honestly, management here is a dumpster fire. 

Besides that all, the instructors I did have were AMAZING. They were all brilliant individuals with diverse work experiences which, sadly, management didn't seem to celebrate. I feel like my fellow students and I came away with a great set of skills and were found to be immediately hirable by many amazing companies. It is what you make of it, and I saw it important to work from 8AM to 2AM daily to make sure I got everything I could out of this program.

While my experience had a happy ending, my concerns about the current state of Galvanize Seattle are too great and I would not recommend it to anyone.

My experience at Galvanize Seattle has been a kind of perfect storm (in a good way): the instructors and curriculum were great, my cohort was super friendly and supportive, and I got a job at a company in the Galvanize building! And my experience isn't even unique. But to be realistic, it's not guaranteed either. Probably the only thing you can count on is getting a good education, and even that is largely up to you. You have to do the work (but don't be afraid to ask for help). You have no control over who will be in your cohort, though the fact that you've all chosen the same program means you have something big in common. The job search can be difficult. Galvanize will help, but ultimately it's up to you to find a job.

Galvanize has a lot of great attributes but also some disorganization and inconsistency. What sets one class apart from another is the teachers and the way the curriculum is planned out. Although my instructors had the best intentions, they didn't have the best resources and were not clear about requirements. We were never quite sure when something was due or if it was due at all and our work was rarely evaluated which made it difficult to know where we stood throughout the program. Galvanize prides itself as a learning environment that is constantly adapting. I understand for every cohort it's a learning process but there are some aspects that need to be appropriately defined, especially when your students are paying 21k to learn a new skill. 

One of my biggest gripes was with the administration. If a student had concerns, galvanize made it very clear that they're there to help. When it comes down to it, your concerns are often disregarded. They don't seem to communicate with one another and when the ball gets dropped they do a lot of blaming of everything and everyone but themselves which hurts no one but the student.

Although my experience wasn't perfect, I still met a lot of great people and gained some valuable skills. My biggest regret is not asking enough questions. My advice to prospective and current students is to make any concerns clear to administration and teachers, document them, and if need be, keep going higher until your problems get resolved. The squeaky wheel gets the oil.   

I haven't even taken my class here yet and I'm already dreading it.

-They're in it for the money. They were nice to me until I paid for my class and now I don't hear back from them ever.

-Anyone you talk to will give you a different answer. Good luck trying to get clear info

-They took a month to respond to my email asking about a class.

-Once they realized I was younger and a full time college student they weren't nice to me any more. 

I wish I could have my money back but they never responded to that email either so I guess I'm stuck with these people.

I attended Galvanize's web development immersive program (formerly known as full-stack immersive) from April 2016 to September 2016. The program is divided into 6-week quarters, which can be summarized this way:

1st quarter: front-end, focusing on JavaScript fundamentals, HTML, and CSS.

2nd quarter: back-end, focusing on Node, Express, Postgres, server-side templating.

3rd quarter: data structures and algorithms, and practice with learning a new language in a short amount of time (for our cohort, we learned Python in 2 weeks).

4th quarter: front-end frameworks. We covered Angular but future cohorts may end up learning React. Instructors will also spend a lot of time this quarter preparing you for interviews and helping with the job search in general.

I would say the best part of Galvanize is the instructors. They were passionate about what they were teaching. They wanted every student to succeed. And they were fun.

I would say the curriculum could use improvement. Things slow down during the 4th quarter compared to the previous three quarters. To be fair, this is by design. Students are encouraged to spend the extra time to explore their own interests, which they can then share with everyone else in the form of a final capstone project. If you aren't self-motivated, you may end up getting complacent towards the end when the curriculum structure loosens up. On the plus side, the instructors have a wide breadth of knowledge and interests, so they will surely be able to advise you no matter what you choose to pursue, whether that be AI, IoT, language processing, etc.

If you are considering Galvanize's web development program, I highly recommend you to commit, but with the following caveats. As a recent graduate, my suggestion to you is to be highly motivated and be ready to work extremely hard for the duration of the program. It will definitely pay off. Do NOT attend if you aren't serious because you will end up wasting a lot of money and your own time. Should you get accepted to Galvanize and decide you want to join them, I recommend that you spend at least 3 hours a day learning JavaScript during the month leading up to the start date. Good luck!

"The curriculum does not matter. Your experience is dependent on the instructors"

- Michael Herman

Michael mentored me while I was still a student at Galvanize in the g8 cohort. This was before Galvanize hired him. After he was hired as the lead instructor for the g11 cohort he still mentored me and a number of other students in my cohort because g8's lead instructor was awful. I am not going to go into the minute details since he no longer works for Galvanize, but he rarely showed and when he did he hardly did any teaching.

Michael gave me my first paying freelance job and introduced me to the company that I now work at. He is the sole reason why I am a developer now, and he did not even teach me. Even though he has assured me that Galvanize is better at hiring instructors now, I urge you to only request his next cohort. 

Do your homework before you attend any bootcamp! 

Research the instructors. Find out who they are. Ask them why they are teaching. Visit a class and pay attention to the interaction between students and instructors. Ask the students how they are doing and what they are learning. 

Galvanize gets 1/5. Michael gets 5/5.

The time in the data science immersive was probably the most invigoring time of life

The instructor are very knowledgeable and know most use cases in a real job environment. We were taksed to do pair programming so you not only learned but got experienced and fluent in the topics learned. One area of improvement I'll say is we could learn more about the connection between linear algebra and certain techniques we're using. However, considering the width of  knowledge in data science and limited amount of time, they were already doing a great job and were knolwedged about the topics if you pick their brain. 

The "outcome" team were extremely helpful in every aspect of your job placement. From resume building, connection to placement and interview practice, they sort of guide you step by step and constantly having 1 on 1 times. This is an aspect of the program that I did not expect to learn and I think could be useful for the rest of my life.

Overall, if you're not treating this program as just another job training for higher salary but an introduction to your new passion, it worth every pennies. 

The heavily advertised (self reported) stats are not reflective of the current course or hiring environment. In 2016, it will take you 3+ months to land a job coming out of the program and a sizeable portion (think 30-50%) of your classmates will not have any job after 6 months.

The program has been myopically focused on generating more revenue (students), and devotes the bare minimum of resources to graduates. The core product of the program (getting someone a job) was never well developed, but because of Macro trends (Hot Tech Market and Data Science Buzz) this went unattended. Now the tide has gone out and this program is swimming naked.  Check your expectations … you won’t be hired by a prestigious company, have a strong brand or alumni community.

“Bad outcomes” as they are affectionately known, just don’t write posts like this – they still need the alleged connections and support of the program to get a job! The indifference the school has shown them has been shameful and prospective students deserve to know what they are getting into.

tldr: Galvanize is one of the better programs, it does a good job on the curriculum, but this model of education is still under development. Enroll in any Bootcamp at your own peril.

To management;  

There is a lack of Leadership, Vision and Passion in SF, you can tell the CEO works in another state.  Stop reading your own press releases about the future of education, and fix your product…  Reduce # of students going through the program, & focus on outcomes

The data science immersive program at galvanize was life changing and the best decision I ever made. I would not be in my current job or position in life without it. That said, you must have a solid background and be willing to push yourself to make the jump, and I may not recommend it to everyone. What follows is my story and some thoughts and recommendations.

Brief history

I was an electrical engineer working in product marketing. I was very comfortable coding in Python with a strong background in math and linear algebra. Through MOOCs, I'd also studied data science and machine learning at a preliminary level. After galvanize, I completed a one year statistics masters, during which I was hired as a data scientist at a tech startup in SF the summer after graduation. My entire job hunt from first application to signed offer took just over one month.

What to expect

Expect to spend your entire life (for three months) committed to learning this stuff. You will be pushed and it will be hard. It won't always be fun but the end result will be amazing and worth it. This program moves fast! Do all the prelimary assignments and pre-readings. Luckily me most, most topics were vaguely familiar. However, the days that were 100% brand new were rough. The program moves so quickly that you don't have time to review or learn slowly. This can snowball quickly for those with inadequate preparation.

The value

This program provides three key elements which are difficult (if not impossible) to find elsewhere. 1) great educational material. You don't just do projects, they teach you what you need to get into this field. 2) learn every tool. Data scientists use many tools and this program teaches you all the basics for the essential tools, which allows you master the ones you'll need later. 3) they'll teach you how to get a job. The whole point of all this is to land a great job as a data scientist and the program (and a strong network of alumi already working in the field) provides great resources for doing so.

Recommendation

Go into the program with a goal of what you want to get out of it. For me, I wanted to write professional quality Python code above all else. Hence, when I felt lost on a particular day I continued to improve my coding skills knowing I could review the material over the weekend or after the bootcamp. Decide beforehand where you want to be after the program, assess where your current abilities are, and pick the brains of your galvanize interviewers to make sure you can make the jump given what you currently know. For those that are ready, it's definitatly worth the time and money!