Metis

Before: I had a bachelors in engineering and a law degree. I had worked in a number of different fields and didn't find a job that was fulfilling. I wanted to work on machine learning and NLP, and a bootcamp seemed like the fastest way to get there. From my research Metis seemed to be at exactly the right level for me. I didn't have an applied math Phd, but had a good amount of technical experience and math abilities that I wanted to take further.

Application: I had plenty of background in calculus, stats, and linear algebra, and some python experience. The application was challenging and multi-faceted, requiring math, coding skills, and some product sense/presentation skills as well. Looking back, it was important to have a competitive admissions process, as it allowed us to establish a baseline level of knowledge and hit the ground running on the first day.

Prework: Definitely do the prework. Unless you have been working as a data scientist before the bootcamp (unlikely if you are in the bootcamp), you will need to do the prework. I used it as a reference during the bootcamp as well. The more deeply you get the prework, the more time you can spend during the bootcamp on your project and more complex concepts.

Bootcamp: Full-time for three months. Days start with a coding challenge, followed by lectures, followed by project time. 5 projects in the bootcamp and a presentation to go along with each. Blogs were also encouraged, but not required for each of the projects. Classmates were diverse, thoughtful and supportive - in the 14 students we had, we had students straight out of school, and Phds who had worked in research for several years.  The instructors were knowledgeable and made themselves available after class hours to answer any questions. There is definitely a lot to learn, but I found that there was a good balance between the theoretical, the practical, and practicing communicating using data with a business person/colleague/potential employer. Beyond the assigned work, nobody will be pushing you to go above and beyond, though, so you definitely get more out of it the more you put in.

 

Career support: Great career support that led to lots of positive effects (more interviews, more positive feedback from employers) as I am going through the job search process. The alumni network is very helpful in the job search as well.

Job: It's only been a few weeks since the bootcamp finished, but I have a good number of leads at companies that I would have been ecstatic to work at before the bootcamp started. When I interviewed, I felt technically prepared even when it was with teams staffed entirely of Phds. I'm confident I'll find a fit in a position I'll be very happy with. I don't think it's reasonable to expect any three month bootcamp to be a silver bullet that will get you a job at Google, but Metis definitely made a huge difference in focusing me towards an exciting data science career.

 

 

Before: Psychology major with eclectic work experience for the six years since I'd graduated. Decided I didn't have enough concrete skills/experience to land a job that would be challenging and interesting enough, and I didn't trust myself to learn on my own. Decided on a bootcamp because of the structure and network it would provide, and considered data science because it seemed more niche than coding.

Application: I wasn't set on attending Metis, but when the application was harder than I expected, I was determined to get in. With virtually zero coding experience, I had to learn everything on the spot, and honestly that application was the most empowering weekend of my life. And I got in. Whoo!

Prework: I worked right up until the bootcamp started, so it was challenging to finish up there while completing the prework (I enrolled three weeks before the start date). However, the application plus the prework meant that I was prepared for the bootcamp. Would have been really hard to do the bootcamp without the prework.

Bootcamp: Full-time for three months. My boyfriend was annoyed that I was always working on projects, and I probably would have done better on my projects if I'd been single, but alas. Classmates were very supportive (I didn't experience any competitiveness between people). My cohort was unusually small (19 people), which was nice, and the small size of Metis overall meant it felt very personal, but the WeWork environment provided more people to chat with, ping pong, and coffee. Class material was great, and A LOT. Every day we "learned" something that I could have spent at least a week playing around with. There's really too much to learn, and the hardest part of the bootcamp was figuring out how to prioritize between projects, challenges, reviewing lectures, doing the extra readings, and experimenting on my own. The projects were challenging but essential for learning and also provided good presentation experience. Although both of my instructors were very knowledgeable and eager to help, the quality of instruction varied; I think Metis needs to spend more time preparing instructors (because intelligent people don't always teach well, especially not on such a wide variety of tools). Daily pair coding was awesome for the learning and the social aspect, and occasional cohort+staff activities were nice too. Definitely not an easy program! But like most things, you get what you put in, and of course YMMV.

Career support: Awesome career support throughout the bootcamp and beyond. Headshots, resume help, mock technical and non-technical interviews, speakers from the field, etc. Luckily I got a job pretty quickly and didn't need that much help after the bootcamp, because I think supporting the current cohort and the one that just graduated is too much for one person and she was sometimes hard to connect with once the new cohort started.

Job: I got a job! It's a data/backend engineer for an advertising/marketing agency. I don't use any data science per se, but I LOVE my job and I definitely could not have gotten it without the coding I learned at Metis and the opportunity of Metis Career Day, where I met my current manager.

Feel free to call/text me to hear more! 917-583-5942

Before attending Metis, I was a postdoctoral researcher in chemistry who was not feeling academic research anymore. I took some online classes in data science and thought it seemed like a cool and interesting field, but online courses can only take you so far. Also, I lacked enough connections to actual data scientists to really get a job in the field. I got into and applied to several different boot camps to help me bridge this gap, but I really appreciated that Metis did not try to oversell me on my prospects afterwards. Some of the other boot camps could really learn from this no nonsense approach.

Metis helped me bridge that gap between academia and the tech industry through both the data science cirriculum and career workshops. The cirriculum starts out much more lecture focused, but quickly turns to applying that knowledge to actual projects. Lectures include both descriptions of the math behind various algorithms and programming demonstrations showing practical programming/computing skills like web scraping, SQL, and using AWS. Career-wise, weekly workshops helped you to get started on improving your resume, LinkedIn profile, and networking strategies. I felt it was extremely focused and helpful, if a bit intense! (they don't call it a boot camp for no reason.)

By the end of the program, you have a portfolio of projects covering the major areas of data science (Supervised Learning: regression and classification, Unsupervised Learning/Natural Language Processing) and your final passion project. These let you start networking with other data scientists in the field and give you something to talk about! 

The other people in my cohort were also wonderful. It was a pleasure to interact with people of such diverse professional and personal backgrounds. I felt like I not only met a bunch of professional contacts but also some great new friends.

The boot camp just ended last week, but I have met so many new contacts that I don't think it will be too long to find the right position. The boot camp also offers indefnite career support and lets you return to the office as much as you need. Even a lot of the alumni who already found jobs come back on a regular basis and offer career/interview advice if you ask.

The only thing I think could be better about the curriculum is that there could have been more feedback about projects/challenges. It seemed like it came a bit late or inconsistently. Also, we went over the basics of Big Data tools like Hadoop/Spark, but it felt a little out of place since we never used it.

The one last thing I would add is that this is called a boot camp for a reason. Be sure that you are mentally and emotionally prepared, because while it was a wonderful experience, it was a very intense one. I'm glad that my cohort was such an amazing, positive, and passionate group of people to help me (and everyone else) get through this experience.

Prior to attending Metis I was a data analyst for a market research company. At the time, I was ready to leave my company for a new position, and so I conducted a search for new analyst or data scientist roles. I had trouble finding a good opportunity, and I found that I wasn't competitive for the data scientist positions to which I applied.

Metis helped me change that. After 3 months of bootcamp and a couple more of job searching, I got a GREAT data scientist position.

Metis is valuable because you learn a lot, and you apply that knowledge to concrete projects that show organizations what you can do. You should end the bootcamp with presentations, github repositories, and blog posts that form a portfolio to help you get hired as a data scientist.

The Metis network of alumni, staff, and companies that often hire Metis grads is also indispensable in hooking you into the data science scene and making opportunities known to you.

To comment on the day-to-day aspects of the bootcamp, the curriculum is full of useful material, and each morning's pair programming assignments really complement the material that we learn in the lectures. My one complaint here is that some of the algorithms and code examples were not explained very clearly in the lectures; I think specific lectures could have been a lot better. That said, lectures are where the learning starts, but then you continue by using the material and asking follow-up questions, so there's always opportunity to understand what you didn't before.

The instructors were great. They're very knowledgeable and always willing to help. During my job search, one of the instructors volunteered to help me prepare for a presentation that I had to give in an interview. Another instructor agreed to drill me on algorithm questions for an hour in preparation for another interview. I'm super grateful for their help.

Lastly, the individual career coaching was incredibly helpful. It's just great to have an experienced person giving you advice and helping you practice for interviews and whatnot. My only gripe here is that the career coach seems like she's got a few too many balls in the air at one time, so I had to be more aggressive about following up on certain things. On the upside, Metis seems to be very interested in feedback and making improvements, so I expect that issues will be ameliorated over time.

All in all, Metis was well worth the cost. I was able to make the career leap into data science that I wanted to make, as well as meet a great group of friends and colleagues!

I chose to write my review one year into working as a data scientist to give an honest assessment of my experience with the program from the perspective of an actual data scientist, not an aspiring one. My honest assessment is this - you can go into Metis with literally no experience in data science and be employable by the time you graduate. I shopped around a lot for the boot camp that I believed would give me the best shot at getting a job by three criteria - hands on instruction, one on one availability, and curriculum. Metis did not disappoint in these areas; instructors always made themselves available to help with a project or a lecture that I couldn’t quite grasp. They also did a great job tailoring their instruction to the vast audiences present in the boot camp (fresh math PhDs vs those of us who hadn’t taken a math class in 8 years) and taking feedback when things weren't clicking.  As for the curriculum, I think Metis provides a great foundation for machine learning specifically. While it’s true that in my first role as a data scientist I’m doing little machine learning and mostly working in SQL, having an impressive portfolio filled with machine learning projects on my CV is what got me all of my job interviews. Another important part of Metis’s curriculum is how their lectures are rarely disambiguated; they teach every lecture within the context of a project meant to solve real world problems with data science. This was especially helpful for both remembering the content and applying techniques in my first job. In conclusion, I couldn’t recommend Metis enough. It will still probably be hard to land your first job, but choosing this boot camp will both prepare you and make employers look twice at your CV. 

I had an incredible experience at Metis.  The program is a rewarding experience if you are up for the challenge.  

Admissions: It will require you to have a bit of python experience (Metis offers an Intro Course that is perfect for beginners) so be sure to practice coding on one of the many resources out there and to brush up on basic statistics and probability. And if you feel like you need more practice, Metis lays out pre work to cover any areas you may need a bit of reinforcement in.  The admissions team is extremely responsive and will work with you to make sure you are in the right program and have a great experience.

Program: The topics were broken up into digestible modules that start with exploratory data analysis and build into more complicated data science and machine learning content.  The teachers are world class.  Some with PHDs and others with elite educational and/or professional experience, many of the teachers having nearly a decade of data science background.  Each week includes pair programming challenges to continue to refine your python skills, engaging lectures with quizzes to reinforce learnings, office hours and time to work on module project deliverables.  Both the teachers and the teaching assistants are extremely helpful at working with you to instill concepts and help apply concepts to your personal projects.  In addition, your classmates, Metis faculty, the careers team and admin teams become your second family.  Make no doubt, the program is challenging and requires hard work, but you can be successful whether your fresh out of college or an experienced professional looking to pivot into a data science career.  The diversity in experience within my cohort and the teaching staff made for a well rounded experience that opened my mind to different view points, ideas and solutions both in programming and professional situations. 

Career Services: A+ ... Jen and Ashley are truly incredible as career advisers.  As part of your program we had nearly one speaker every two weeks, all former Metis alumni working in finance, sports, government, entertainment, consulting and information technology to name a few.  The careers teams also has a couple of introductory sessions to help plant the seed on how to begin working on your resume, networking and use the Metis network.  After the bootcamp, you have an entire week of workshops with career teams including mock interviews both technical and personal, resume polishing and advice on how to attack the job search.  The Metis Alumni community is truly incredible and almost always willing to lend you an ear whether it be for things like interview advice or looking for a role.  Many of my job leads came from Metis Alumni either posting or referring me to roles.  Jen was instrumental in helping me get more "cold call" resume submissions into interviews than I had ever had previous to Metis. Not to mention, there are firms where I knew what questions were coming from the preparation I had done with the careers team. There were even some places where I skipped a round of interviews because I went to Metis and the company knew the standards the program has for itself and its students abilities. Jen helped me negotiate multiple offers which resulted in higher pay and getting a fantastic role, all within two months of graduating the bootcamp. 

I found my time in Metis to be challenging but incredibly rewarding. Prior to Metis, I worked in management consulting so I had very little background in data science. The skills I gained through the programme enabled me to get a data science role a month after graduating from the bootcamp. 

ADMISSIONS: Rigorous process but the Admissions team was supportive throughout the process. They provide guidance on what to expect for the testing / interview process as well as materials to help you prepare. 

PROGRAMME: The curriculum was robust and well structured. Each module built on top of skills learned in the previous module to deliver a strong, incremental learning process. The instructors were amazing - I thoroughly enjoyed learning from and engaging with Vinny and Leon. Fortunately, you were able to book 1:1 time with instructors for as much as you needed, which really helps the learning process. The Teaching Assistants were also incredibly engaged and supportive. The peer element in the programme is also so important! Because of the programme's focus on skill level and cultural fit (collaborative, not competitive), you really feel like you are a part of an awesome community of smart, kind and supportive people! 

CAREERS / POST BOOTCAMP: Engaging with Careers for input on my CV, interviews, and negotiating process was so helpful! Ashley provided a lot of advice and insight on what to expect as I progressed through my job search until I received the offer.

After several years in finance, I wanted to pivot my career towards data and decided a bootcamp would be the fastest and most direct path to that goal. I think the core benefits of a program like this are (a) outsourcing the time and decision-making of curating a curriculum, (b) cultivating a data science community, and (c) making a commitment in terms of time and finance to learning the material, getting hands on practice, and finding that next job. While evaluating different programs, Metis really stood out from the others. Here's an unordered list of things I learned throughout my experience that may help you decide if this program is right for you: 
- Admissions process was the most rigorous, which means you'll spend more time in the program learning and implementing advanced concepts.
- Similarly, your cohort will be filled with highly intelligent, driven students to collaborate with. Metis is highly selective and prefers collaborative over competitive. I found my fellow students to be extremely generous with their time and ideas - we formed study groups outside of class hours, and supported each other in any way we could during the job search after. 
- The faculty is truly amazing - the teachers, program managers, and career advisors are all invested in your progress. 
- The capstone projects really stood out to me when I was comparing different programs. There are some really exceptional projects all around, but those from Metis students were on average more captivating .
- You'll get access to a large network of alumni and hiring partners. I found alumni to be very supportive -- reach out to folks on slack or linkedin, have a conversation, they'll often make referrals. Again, it's a very collaborative community!
- While I was evaluating different programs, I reached out to alumni from each. Look at their career progression, ask about their experiences. I found Metis folks on average to be more enthusiastic about their bootcamp experiences than those at other programs. 

There's plenty more I could say, but I think this captures the main ideas. I found Metis to be an integral part of my career transition and would highly recommend it to those with the means. Please feel free to reach out via linkedin if you want to chat more or have any questions!
 

If you're not sure which review to trust because you're not sure which shoes you fill out, hear me out for just a moment. I'm a bioengineering student. Coding, let alone data science, was a world away for me. I barely knew there was a science to data. But with the continuous support of the instructors, and then the diligent career advisors even well after the bootcamp had ended, I went from mean, median, mode, to creating full-fledged end-to-end projects, even in my own time. Metis is a revolutionary experience, but you'll have to put in the hard work to make the most of it. 

The Metis data science bootcamp is an excellent way for you to not only jump start your career into data science/analytics but also to feel out if this is what you really want to do in your career. I had some coding/analytical experience prior to the program and yet I still found myself really grateful for the extra prep that Metis emphasized before Day 1. The course will teach you the foundational concepts of data science in both the technical and professional aspects of the field. Of course, you will learn how to code different machine learning concepts but I found the greatest help in learning how to translate that and present it to an audience that may not know what machine learning even is. In my opinion, this professional skill is fundamental to the success in your new job/career outside the bootcamp. Lots of people can code, but are you able to deliver the insights from that data?

As a bootcamp, it will no doubt be challenging and you will constantly feel like you don't know anything. However, by the end of the program, your imposter syndrome will slowly disappear as you gain more confidence with each completed project. The program's return really depends on how much you are willing to invest in it. The resources are excellent with the instructors and TAs providing a wealth of experience and knowledge to really help you at every step of the way. I found myself having to review the concepts that I just learned each day after "class hours" and I was lucky enough to have that time. If you don't have that kind of luxury, the concepts might just fly past you. Or maybe you don't need the review and you're absolutely brilliant.

Regardless, I think the deciding factor for this program for me was the project-driven curriculum. By the end, you end up with a portfolio of data science projects that you can add to your resume and have the confidence in explaining tough concepts during interviews. The lectures nicely follow the project format and each day you learn something new that can help you refine the particular project you are working on. 

I would highly recommend this data science bootcamp if you have prior technical/coding/analytical experience and are looking to break into the data science/analytics field. Metis also has a wide network of alumni that you have access to once you graduate and this is really invaluable to your job search post-bootcamp. 

I attended Metis in the summer of 2020 after spending a decade in education as a math teacher and administrator. Simply put, Metis was the best decision I ever made. The experience changed my life and gave me the skills and confidence to pivot to a completely different industry. As an educator, I was consistently impressed with the quality of the curriculum and  support and expertise of the instructors. While it can feel a little like information overload at times (it is a bootcamp after all), the projects are where your learning really comes together! The experiences I gained with the projects prepared me to hit the ground running in my new job.  The career support was truly the best career information I've received in my professional experience. Throughout the experience, they plan workshops, alumni sessions, and one-on-one support that prepare you for the job search process. After the bootcamp, careers is there for you as much or as little as you want. Additionally, the Metis alumni community is AMAZING! With the support of careers and the alumni network, I was able to land a job as an Associate Data Scientist just a few weeks after graduating!  I highly recommend Metis to anyone looking to transition into Data Science!