Springboard

i am currently enrolled and definitely think this a great course for UX! From the curriculum that helps you learn the basics of UX to the mentor calls with someone working in UX, to the weekly office hours I have learned a lot about the UX field! It seems to be preparing me well for the UX field because I am finding that the course contact has prepared me for the UX networking that I have done so far! I am confident after I get through the course I will have a good portfolio and base for getting into the field! I would definitely recommend the course to anyone looking to see if UX is the field for them and to develop a portfolio and basic UX knowledge!

At my job, we noticed a big need for someone with UX Design experience to fully vet out projects and ideas prior to pushing them into development. I was granted the ability to take the UX Design course through Springboard and instantly loved the setup. I was able to log on whenever, have tons of curriculum to go through. Lessons were easy to follow along and the project I did was extremely useful in my own life. Each week I met with Dave Hawkins who is a very talented mentor and made complex items very easy to understand. I have seen an improvement in my work, my clients happiness and am able to attack problems better after completing the course. I would recommend this to anyone interested in a career in UX design. 

The Data Science Intensive course at Springboard turned out to be exactly what I was looking for.  It brings together a good collection of content and exercises to allow students to adapt a technical background to current data science skills and tools. 

When I applied, I didn't appreciate how beneficial the mentoring structure is in building both knowledge and confidence.  Besides being very helpful with the technical curriculum when I get stuck, we also spend time talking about the data science industry as a whole to help prepare for my job search once I get through the rest of the course. 

The Data Analytics for Business course had :-

1)Great content- the case submission every alternate week kept me on the track. Being an analytical thinker,I read the material and jumped straight to the case assignment due.

During the weekly mentor call, I discussed my problem solutions and approach with my Mentor who was very helpful.She gave me great feedback and examples from her job which I inculcated in my final submission.

2)The weekly mentor calls kept me accountable to always be working on the course content. That is the best part about this course.

Great experience. Would highly recommend this course!

You might be wondering how someone with no background in tech decided to enroll in a UX design course. I was an Area Manager with Costco for 5 years, 9 years with them in total, and I just started to get desperate; looking for a way out. One of my close friends has been successful in his career, and he is now a Talent Coordinator (or something like that. it doesn't even sound like a real job). We were hanging out and I was venting about my dislike for my career choice, then he suggested that I look into UX design. We went to college together, and we both have a degree in visual arts, so he knew I had creativity in me. He even recommended Springboard. 

The more I read about UX, the more I felt like I was already doing it, in a way. I worked in an area where I was consistently redisigning the customer's shopping experience... physically. The concept came very naturally to me, and I felt confident that I could apply it to mobile and web design, so I enrolled. 

It seems that the staff at Springboard are very open and very helpful. I never had an email that went unanswered. My mentor was very positive, encouraging and understanding. Through the first half of the course, I was very motivated. I didn't fully understand the first project, a harvard design challenge, which was to "redesign the gift-giving experience." I thought to myself, "Aren't gifts supposed to be a surprise? Why would I interview someone about the gift they want?" It wasn't until I forced myself through the project that I got a clearer understanding of what to do. When I moved on to my own project idea is when the wheels started to really turn. 

There are a lot of articles to read and a lot of videos to watch; all with important information, most are very boring and monotone. I suppose it's tough to find highly skilled UX designers with a lot of charisma... Anyway, I always had questions, and I always emailed my mentor about them. He always replied with an answer, but sometimes it was better to discuss on our weekly video chat. 

The process of UX was new to me, so even though I really didn't like it, I was excited about it. There were so many new terms and unfamiliar ideas, so it was a challenge. At some points, I felt like many aspects of UX were a bit pretentious or unnecessary, but that's coming from me; a person who is new to this world. 

I've never been fully motivated to do research, conduct interviews or gather data. I have done these things in the past, but only because they were part of the job. In UX, that IS the job. Still, I went ahead and spoke with family, friends, co-workers and even posted in the Springboard Community on Google+ for help. It turned out that I enjoyed creating surveys and gathering data. I just don't like talking to people (haha). Even in the Springboard Community I felt somewhat uncomfortable because it seemed like all the members where overwhelmingly positive. It was either that, or they were faking it, and both ideas were a turn-off to me. However, I can't complain too much because many of them did participate in my surveys and things and even provided feedback. So, if I ever didn't thank you, then just let me do it now. 

My favorite part of this course was the actual designing. I enjoy sketching, and it turns out that I love the Sketch program (I paid $100 for it, one time payment, worth it). I've never used it before, but I picked it up really quick. My mentor was legitimately impressed with my first round of wireframes. This part of the course is where I put the most effort in, where I spent the most time, and somehow where I started to lose motivation. The work became very tedious and repetitive, but I suppose that is the case with most things. Again, I pushed through. I eventually had a testable wireframe flow that I uploaded to InVision. Once I started to get feedback from that, my motivation went back up. I guess it's nice to see some sort of result after putting in a lot of work. 

I designed two flows for my mobile app project, my mentor approved them, and then I moved on to create a presentation. You can view my Capstone Project here. 

Where am I now?

Well, just before I started the course I had demoted myself from my management position. I was headed that direction regardless, because I was unhappy/unfulfilled, but it would've been really tough to work a 10-hour day, come home exhausted, and focus even harder on my course work. So now I was in a position with much less stress and more energy to dedicate to the course.

Things just seemed to fall into place. In my last week with Springboard, I was brought into a new position. It wasn't exactly a promotion, but it was new and I enjoyed the work. It was an undiscovered territory for Costco, so it was up to me to figure out what the position entailed. It turns out that my newfound UX knowledge played a big part in my new position. I was creating spreadsheets, gathering data, talking to members about their needs and just doing a lot of brainstorming in general. I've been in this positions for 3 months so far, and I'm actually enjoying it. 

I was the Merchandising Manager in my warehouse, which is senior level. My annual salary was $68,500, my shift started at 2:00am, and I my days off were Wednesday and Sunday. I am now the Volume Sales Coordinator, I make $24/hour with a bi-annual bonus of $2,500, and I work Monday-Friday starting at 5:00am. I make less money, but I'm much happier.

In the end, I am glad I took this course, and I'm glad I have this experience under my belt. However, I don't see myself applying for jobs in UX. I just don't think I can be a functional part of that type of work environment. Although, I think this course would be exponentially better if it helped to get you actual experience in the field; even an unpaid part-time internship. My idea of the work environment is a total assumption. I, and most students, would benefit greatly from a real-world experience in the field without a full committment on the student's part, as well as the employer's. Regardless, the experience that I gained here is something that I hope to use if/when one of my creative endeavors come to fruition.