CareerFoundry

Covid brought a whole lot of new and exciting changes to my life. I became a mom, lost my job, and changed careers all in that timeframe, which was quite a whirlwind.
That being said I’m so glad I chose Career Foundry to help me navigate the UI career field on my path to a new, more stable and fulfilling career. Their UI Immersion course is flexible, allowing me to step away and take care of life’s unpredictable moments, and their staff is super helpful and knowledgeable. The content is engaging and the projects are challenging. 

I am currently studying at CareerFoundry. Or rather, I am currently in the process of foundry to become a Full-Stack Web Developer. I think the name they chose makes a lot of sense: they take students as if they were raw materials, and mold them through technical knowledge and soft skills to finally produce a professional ready for the job market. Or at least that's what I'm seeing (and of course, what I'm hoping for).

I'll be honest: nothing is perfect. Never trust people who say something is perfect. Even the best university in the world isn't perfect. You will always find something that can be improved: the infrastructure, the study curriculum, the job connections, the way tests are taken, and so on. However, it is always good to make a balance, and in this case in CareerFoundry the good aspects win.

First I will start with the only moderately bad point that I find in CareerFoundry, and that is totally correctable: the course content. The course is divided into achievements. The good thing? To approve each achievement you have to create a web page / web app that you can add to your portfolio and increase your chances of finding a job. The bad thing? There are a couple of poorly explained achievements, outdated (by almost 2 years) and in urgent need of revision and correction.

The course curriculum is very interesting, and I think it allows students to have a solid foundation to go out to the labor market. That's why I say it's a moderately bad side: the study curriculum is great, the projects are wonderful, but in some achievements it's really an odyssey to understand what they ask for (punctually, the achievement 3 that builds the foundations of React).

Don't get me wrong: as programmers we must be prepared to be constantly learning and updating our knowledge. However, it is a bit tiring to have to make use of materials or tutorials outside the course to understand how to do well the requested project, since the contents are a bit outdated or unclear.

At this point, I think CareerFoundry focuses more on UI and UX courses, and web programming is perhaps in second place. UI and UX design are its strong points, of course, but I think it should not forget the web programming course. It would be interesting if every year the curriculum is reviewed and updated. Two years of lag is quite a lot. By the way, a strong point: students can access in lecture mode to the other courses offered. I asked for access to UI and UX. I won't have a certificate, but I will be able to get the knowledge from those courses without paying extra. Wonderful! A bonus point for the foundry.

Now, the whole resume thing takes a back seat when it comes time to communicate with your tutor and mentor. That's CareerFoundry's strong point, and where I'll start talking about the positives it has.

At the beginning of the course you are matched with a tutor and mentor. The tutor will correct each assignment that comes with each chapter of an achievement, and the mentor will correct the final project of the achievement. He or she will make a video, pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of your work. The tutors and mentors are professionals who have a lot of experience, and the feedback is great. And now maybe I should be honest and expose a personal appreciation.

I have been lucky, and probably have the best mentor a web programming student could have. And that is that my mentor not only helps me to perfect my skills with his corrections of my projects, but also encourages me to be better. In CareerFoundry you can schedule video calls with the mentors (I think there are about 12, I can't remember), and I must say that those video calls have helped me a lot. My mentor, a great professional from Vietnam, has given me tips to be a better programmer, he shows me my failures and how I can improve, he encourages me when I have the impostor syndrome and makes me see the good things I have. He lives up to his name: a mentor. He inspires me to be a good programmer and to have hope that, once I finish the course, I will be able to find a job as a web programmer.

By the way, another great thing about CareerFoundry is their job guarantee. If you take the job readiness course with them (which is totally optional), you can access the job guarantee: if you don't get a job within the first 6 months after finishing the course, you get your money back. Sounds great, doesn't it?

However, I don't know if anyone has made use of that guarantee so far. The job preparation course is great: they help you perfect your CV, have a presence on work social networks like LinkedIn, and more. By the way, you are also matched with a mentor. My mentor is great, and the video calls have been really helpful in gaining confidence and improving my job search techniques. I think I will be well trained to give good interviews once I finish the course.

Regarding the price of the course, I cannot say anything about it, because thanks to the AFA I was able to do the course at no cost. It is a great help that you can receive if you live in Germany: a Bildungsgutschein from the Agentur für Arbeit. CareerFoundry is a German Bootcamp, so if you receive a Bildungsgutschein I recommend that you take your course with them, especially if you plan to develop your career in the German job market. In Germany CareerFoundry is quite well known.

Regarding money, I must be honest. Especially because I am a person of solid ethical principles. And I do not know if this message will be removed from this page, since what I will say may go against everything that is usually written here.

Do you want to be a web programmer, but are you poor? Don't you have the financial means to pay for a Bootcamp? Keep calm, I understand you. I come from Latin America, I know how difficult it is to access education. In addition, unfortunately the prices of the Bootcamp are designed for the reality of the first world. However, don't lose hope: you can do it, you just need to stay motivated and get organized. Based on my humble experience, I give you two options.

The first. You're poor? Learn programming through programming tutorials on YouTube, reading the official documentation of the technologies you should learn, creating projects and sharing them on GitHub, actively participating in Stack Overflow. However, do you need certificates to demonstrate what you have learned? In freecodecamp you can get them. The Bootcamp of the poor. And believe me, it has nothing to envy from the curriculum of other Bootcamps: it is the same or probably the best of all that exist, because it is constantly updated and has a whole community behind support. I know it is dangerous to say it, but I must take a risk because I know that not everyone has the means to pay for a Bootcamp.

The second option: you are poor, but you can save a little money each month to pay for a bootcamp. If so, take the web programming course with CareerFoundry. Or what the heck, with some other bootcamp that is cheaper or also has a fair job guarantee. The important thing is that you get out of poverty and can have a decent salary to live a decent life. The only thing that differentiates a paid bootcamp like CareerFoundry (and all the others you can find on this page), from a free bootcamp like freecodecamp, is the mentors and tutors guide. You will be able to receive feedback and, most valuable, advice to be able to enter the labor market quickly and well.

Do you live in the first world, and do you have financial means that allow you to do a paid bootcamp to learn web development? Well, I recommend CareerFoundry. I can't tell you if it's better or worse than the others, since it's my first time doing a bootcamp. I can just tell you it's worth it, for the mentors, tutors, job guarantee, job prep course, and portfolio projects.

I hope to be a little help. I'll update this by finishing the course, and of course when I find work as a web developer.

Happy coding!

The UI design course takes you right through from introduction to UI design principles, the basics of user interface design and mastering your design tools, to creating your first design portfolio pieces.  From here you get immersed in the world of interface design, guided by a tutor and industry professional (mentor).  Towards the end of the course you are then asked to choose a specialisation, which where I'm nearly at right now!  You can choose from different options, including animation and developing.  

I've really enjoyed the course so far, and most importantly, it has been very challenging (it would be odd if it were too easy!).  All the people at CareerFoundry are really friendly and they really keep you on your toes and check-in on you regularly to see how you're doing.  The main benefit of the course, apart from the written content, is the tutor and mentor focussed learning.  You get access to people who really are pros in the industry and they will properly and honestly help you with your work.

You also get career guidance and support from a specialist, which is where I'm at at the moment, and again they are really helpful and friendly.

So far so good for me!  It is a lot of work, and you will have to put the time in, but I do feel as though I'm getting somewhere.  I suppose it's also worth adding that I'm a complete new-starter to design!

I am a UX design student at CareerFoundry and I must say the course is designed so well in order understand the UX design concept and make students ready to work in the industry. Tutors and mentors are too highly qualified and always available. They make sure that you do not just submit a assignment but to do a quality work .Mu tutor and Mentor review each and every line of my assignment and correct me wherever I am not up to the mark and moreover give me tips also for future designs.I have learnt a lot,Thank you so much CareerFoundry !

It is a very well-designed course with a great approach to presenting material. The material is extensive and covers all important aspects. The course is divided into Achievements and at the end of each Achievement you have a project to add to your portfolio (5 projects in total). You get a Mentor who reviews your projects (and you can book weekly video calls), and a tutor who reviews your daily tasks. The latter unfortunately doesn’t leave much comments on your exercises and just makes sure you stick to the task given, which sometimes makes you re-do lots of stuff at the end if the project, when you mentor finally reviews it. 

I chose CareerFoundry due to its balance of cost/program length/provided resources and I must say that I think it has been a great value so far. But like most things, you get out what you put in.

Obviously due to its nature as a bootcamp it is somewhat limited in scope, but where this program shines is in it’s provided mentoring. I see the provided readings/exercises as a great starting point, then delve deeper with my mentor to really understand real world applications of my new knowledge. I truly recommend taking full advantage of the numerous (99) mentor calls provided with the course.
I speak with my mentor every week, he’s very knowledgeable and I can tell that he’s eager to help me learn and grow.

I’m about 2/3 of the way through my immersion course and am honestly engaged with the app I’ve been building through the course. am looking forward to the specialization course that will follow and plan to make full use of the Job Prep course as well. (I’ve left job assistance neutral at 3stars as I haven’t reached that point yet)

To anybody that is looking to change their career or go down the UX Design road, I would highly recommend CareerFoundry. From start to finish I have been supported throughout my course. Although I am at the early stage of my UX career, I feel very confident that the skills that I have learned, are to a very good standard in this industry. 

The material provided was easy to follow and there was plenty of reference material. And if that was not enough, there are tutors, mentors, advisors, a slack community and other students that were willing to help at the drop of a hat. 

All in all, a fabulous experience with an organisation that is well structured.

I do have one request and this probably applies to all! It would be great to see how accessibility is applied to design at the very early stages of the design thinking process. We are all aware of the lack of accessibility in today´s society and courses like this and any other, are creating the designers of the future. It is imperitive that change is made by designers, businesses believe there are too many challenges, designers will provide the solutions, rant over :-)

Wish you guys all the best and will certainly be looking at other courses in the near future.

Regards