Startup Institute

In 2016 it is almost impossible to find a job without a network and without networking. I did Startup Institute (SI) Boston and was introduced to over 100 (or more) companies. During your time at SI you are constantly networking. There are networking events after class . There are partner fairs where 15 partner companies come in and meet with 5 students at a time. As a student, you are able to pitch yourself and the companies pitch themselves to you. Then, you reach out to the companies you like and try and arrange "coffee chats" which are essentially informal interviews. Various CEOs and Founders of startups in the Boston area come in a do "fireside chats," which entail them telling the students about how they came to build their company and what kind of employees they are looking for. You are also put into a group of 4-5 students and you work on site with a partner company on a project of their choosing. Through doing this you get hands on experience working with a startup. At the end of your time, in order to graduate, you tell a story about yourself in front of 400 people from the industry at the iMAX theatre at the aquarium. You have 60 seconds. After my "pitch" I was approached by 5 companies. After you graduate SI works with you until you are placed in a job you like. I had 5 interviews and landed a job only a month after graduating. Almost all of my cohort has a job. They are true to their statistics. But that is all the technical stuff. Aside from giving you a network, you also find out a ton about yourself by being pushed to ask yourself questions around what you want in life and a job, by being placed in groups and spending time with your fellow classmates (with whom you bond with, I'm prettys sure, for life), and by getting one on one attention from the class. Even though the latter parts of networking and landing a job are the "practical" aspects of joining SI (they deliver what they say they are going to deliver), what really amazed me was the way the program forces you to be introspective and the way that you bond with folks in your class. All my classmates were unique, smart, fun, and supportive. It was an amazing experience.  

I moved to NY particularly for Startup Institute. I really wanted to leave Boston and move my graphic design career into the tech world. SINY was the answer for me. 

The value of this program is in the people you meet. My cohort was filled with such motivated and diverse people. Everyone comes to the program for a different reason, but all are there to make the next step in their career and lives; it creates such a collaborative and supportive environment. The program is very demanding, and having a group of new friends makes the struggle a little bit easier. 

When I attended the cirriculum was still in development, so I learned fewer hard skills in the Product & Design track and more general concepts, but that was helpful for me as I decided which steps I wanted to take next in the design world. I left the program with a greater understanding of the NYC tech/startup scene and a clear pathway on how to get my next job. While my job search was longer than I anticipated, the team at SI was always around to help me with introductions, phone calls, and meetings. 

Even though I've been out of the program for a couple of years, I still reach out to SI staff and teammates for help and advice! It's a great community, and I am forever grateful for my SINY experience. 

SINY was a great overall experience for me. Our cohort was diverse, fun and driven. When applying, I was deciding between doing SINY and GA, and ultimately settled on the former. These are some of the things that I really liked about my time here:

1. I was surrounded by a group of motivated individuals. Being in such an environment is going to naturally stimulate you to work hard and towards whatever goal you've set for yourself.

2. I felt an authenticity about why this program was created, and from the staff. 

3. The staff really cared about my being able to get a job after the program, and went out of its way to help me prepare my portfolio and resume, practice interviews, etc.

4. I met some great people there. This by far makes the program worth it. I ended up living in a four-bedroom apartment a month later, and two of my roommates were people I met during the program. A core group of my friends today, two years later, are SINY alumni. 

5. Point number 4 bleeds over into this one: you will create a great network as a result of this program. Now, this is fully dependent on you. If you put in effort and find a way to connect with people genuinely, this program will help you enrich your network with solid people. 

There are some things I think could have been done better. I did ths program in Spring of 2014, so things may have changed. These are my observations for that time period:

1. The curriculum was focused more on soft skills than hard skills. I think the former is immensely important and will help you grow at your job, but I think the latter is what gets you the job in the first place. I was actually ok with this distribution, b/c I had learned coding and some UX/UI basics previous to this program and had a little bit of a foundation to work with. However, I do think there were others who went in with a blank slate and weren't able to get as strong of a foundation as they wanted to.

2. Not all guest instructors were useful. This is fairly subjective, and is probably a continously-improving aspect of the program.

I started work at a startup doing web development six weeks after graduation. I hustled my way in there and learned a lot on the job. The key to this program is the key to life: you get out what you put in. If you come in with the right attitude, the right mental landscape, and put in consistent effort into learning skills, building your portfolio, and forging friendships, you will come out in a great position to land a job that you'll be happy at. 

I have to say that when I first was interested in Startup Institute I looked for reviews, looking for the bad, or at least for the not-so-very-good. I could find practically nothing negative, and now after becoming an SI graduate, I know why: the bootcamp is fantastic, the staff is extraordinary, and the doors it opens are mind-blowing.

The bootcamp has four facets: "fireside" chats by founders and key startup figures, collaboration that mimics the startup experience (IdeaHacks and projects) in addition to a light internship with a partner company, a technical curriculum that also includes job search, private job fairs, and presentation skills, and last but not least, discussion and reflection of what you want as your career, who you are as a person and a professional, and what you want to pursue in your own life.

The above demands would make the experience a potential madhouse and an extreme pressure cooker, but it all happens in the context of a supportive and nurturing staff --who has also selected a cohort that for the most part aims to support you. This has been done so wisely and as a constant of past bootcamps so that now an extensive network of alumni is standing by to help you.

Does this mean that you need to "just" get in? Not at all --the more you give to the program, the more you will gain. The more supportive you are of your fellow cohort, the more they will support you and help you grow, and so can be said from the staff --what they have achieved stands tall as an example of what a bootcamp and job retraining can be, but SI is at the end about you --about how you will work on your own person to become a better professional.

Some advice for those that are admitted: study your material and pre-work. If you are a developer, make sure to study Rails and Ruby to the point of executing at least 1/3rd of the Michael Hartl book (when I took my course, the subject was Ruby on Rails) and make sure you already learned to program Ruby on your own, and can get around the concepts of Rails. You do not want to have to skip key sessions or meeting great people, or spend the valuable time of an alumni discussing syntax errors or easy concepts vs. job leads. Last but not least, make sure that you find an avenue to keep fit and relaxed, and make sure you eat your vitamins and veggies. You need to keep your stress under control, an exercise routine to be grounded is best, and need to take care of yourself so that you can be ready for the challenge, because this is a challenge.

This is an exceptional program --by all means apply. And if you do not get in, ask for feedback and take it to heart, then try again. If you want this experience hard enough, you will get in --and you will not regret it, but will cherish the time as a highlight of a lifetime. [Yup, it is this good! Get off the couch and get busy right now to get in! Do it! ]

I had always been on a rather fortunate career path. I studied chemical engineering at MIT. I interned multiple summers and was employed immediately out of college. I worked six straight years for a company founded by the Godfather of biomedicine, Dr. Robert Langer. I was in quite an enviable position for any millenial. Yet despite the reputation, value, and benefits I accumulated over the years, what I still lacked was happiness. I did not know how I would find it or if I would, but I knew where I wouldn't find it. That was a realization made clear to me during my first meeting with a Startup Institue alumna. My position had not offered that most important benefit of working: happiness. I could have easily navigated my network to a another technical position, career path, or industry. But I was not prepared to realize what happiness at work meant for me and then recognize where it could be found. So rather than take a chance at another comfy position, I took a chance at an organization whose mission is to help you find what makes you happy. Through honest self-exploration, cultivation of social etiquette, and exposure to numerous opportunities, the Startup Institute renews your vision and focus so that happiness is clear and within reach.

Startup Institute isn't for everyone. But everyone who knows their work does not bring them happiness should begin their search here.

9 weeks of the craziest and most incredible experience that is Startup Institute is 2 days from ending, and I couldn't have asked for a better cohort that's made me truly value the importance of diversity of thought and backgrounds -- not one of us is at all like the other, and it makes for the best potluck of personalities that bring so much unique good to the table. You've quit cushy jobs, flown halfway around the world from Brazil, dedicated months to a path with an ending that had zero guaranteed outcome. That's BRAVE AS HELL. We've all seen each other at times struggle to define our goals and dreams, but have also seen each other grow in ways we couldn't imagine. I, for one, have probably cried enough to fix CA's water shortage, but I digress. I've seen people finally embody their incredible full potential and find that treasure trove of what it is that makes them tick, and that's rare to find in a lifetime, never mind a few months. You carry yourself with an amplified assurance of your path in life, and color me impressed. You guys are awesome. To that idea of being afraid to test yourself, and risking it all to find that outlet for your life's passions: BYE, FELICIA, BAIIIIIII.

I decided to attend StartUp Institute because I really wanted to get back into a start-up environment professionally, also I felt the need to upskill a bit in digital marketing.  What I hoped to get from the program (which is so much more than the traditional definition of school), was access to the local startup network,to  re-focus my own personal career aspirations and get some experience with things like SEO, inbound marketing and content creation. 

The access that SI students have to CEO's, Founders and SI alumni is incredible, everyone I've been interested in talking with has taken some time out of their busy schedules to spend time with me, which I think is the most valuable thing. Additionallly, I can't even count the number of companies that come in for Fireside Chats, Partner Fairs and to instruct classes, we get an insider view to all of them. These interactions have lead to multiple conversations about roles at companies, something I couldn't have believed before starting. 

In terms of learning new skills, I now have a good sense of technical marketing strategy and tactics and have the resources to find out what I don't know. I also have access to a whole new network of experts I can contact for help.

I can't speak enough about the SI team, everyone is amazing at what they do, and the amount of support, patience and help that is available is incredible. It truly feels that they are as invested in my success as I am, and that comes through everyday. 

As some quick background, I have over 20 years of experience both in traditional brand marketing for consumer products and client service for an agency, before I started the program I was a bit afraid I wouldn't fit in, and this was not the case, the other cohorts in my class are a diverse group of ages, backgrounds, ethnicity etc. and we all have one thing in common when it comes to wanting a meaningful role and willing to take a risk to get it. Having this support from peers is truly priceless. 

All that said, SI is a lot of work, each day feels a bit like a minute and a week, and when you are in the program you really have to commit in order to get the most out of it. It is exilhirating, inspiring and exhausting (kind of like working at a start up) and not a great idea if you can't dedicate the time over the 8 week program. (But worth it if you can!)

I am almost done with the Fall 2015 Startup Institute cohort and I can't say enough good things about my experience! While it's not perfect, the overall quality of the program has exceeded my expectations greatly!  The main thing I was skeptical about coming into the program, is if it would be possible to create a true community within my cohort in 8 short weeks.  The answer is a resounding yes.  Even better, I am now tapped into a greater SI community of past students, instructors, and SI advocates.  This alone has made the investment worth it for me.  

It's no secret, that if you want to learn only hard skills there are probably better programs out there.  My experience in Techinical Marketing has been exactly what they promised, I've been rapid fire exposed to all facets of digital marketing to the point where I am conversant but not expert.  What they do, is set students up with resources and network to dive deeper into the areas they are intersted in. 

Overall, this has been a lifechanging experience.  I would recommend to anyone who is ready to take a leap of faith in their career. 

I recently just finished the Sales track in Chicago and started my job the Monday after it's conclusion. Startup Institute was instrumental in helping me refine what I wanted in a career, team, and life. I came into the program with some sales experience but no direction, but quickly was introduced to amazing people across the city who were so willing to speak with me and help me figure out who I wanted to become.

I know I would not be where I am without the guidance of the staff or the encouragement of the great instructors they brought in for us. Having said that, Startup Institute will not do the work for you. Simply attending the program will not result in any sort of dream job - you need to be out actively pursuing contacts and companies and hustle your butt off. SI will provide you the resources, but it is up to you what you do with them.

Enrolling in SI was one of the best decisions of my life and I encourage anyone ready to invest in themselves to take the plunge, too!