General Assembly Arvostelua 89

They did a great job at making sure I had what I needed to succeed in the course. I appreciated that.

I attended General Assembly's bootcamp, and while my instructor was knowledgeable and supportive, I experienced disappointment with their job placement promises. Initially, I was led to believe that landing a job post-graduation would be more immediate. However, the reality was different. They often cited minor reasons, like not responding to one of their messages, to avoid accountability for job placement. Despite being punctual and diligently completing all requirements for over a year, I found their commitment to securing employment opportunities somewhat lacking. It's crucial for prospective students to approach their expectations with a realistic perspective on post-graduation outcomes.I wouldn't have enrolled in the course at General Assembly if they hadn't assured me of a job guarantee. The promise of post-graduation employment heavily influenced my decision to purchase the course. However, the disparity between their assurances and the actual job placement process left me feeling misled and dissatisfied with the overall experience. Clear communication and realistic expectations are essential when making decisions about educational investments, and unfortunately, the initial commitment to guaranteeing a job did not align with the outcome.

It was a robust process getting us set up and ready for the course. Also liked the high level of support that was provided by the teaching team.

I also enjoyed the delivery method and thought that the teaching and the content was of high quality.

By far, it is one of the best schools that I've ever been in Australia.

I did the Javascript development course, it was very challenging but worthwhile.

My teacher was very upskill, I'd do another course with those guys.

I liked how I felt more commited and capable after leaving GA. I will say though this course does NOT make you job ready. and I would bet all my money most companies wouldnt and shouldnt feel comfortable hiring someone just because they went to GA. Out of my entire cohort I was the only one who landed a job in software engineering and it took me 6 months. This course helps build skill but if you dont have some understanding before coming into GA it will be very hard to successfully complete it if your professors actually grade your work (ours just marked them as complete no matter what) You have to put in a lot in, and after youre done you have to keep coding. You arent ready for a job and employers know it. Cool you made tic tac toe and a bad react website while holding the hands of other developers. Thats not enough. Not to mention for what you get, I payed way too much. 16 grand for what I learned? no. In summary, this is useful but not as useful as doing hackathons and learning this stuff anyways FOR FREE. and getting payed to do it if you do well, plus it looks way better on a resume and you retain a lot more. If you have money to spare and want to learn about web dev go for it but know you arent handed a job because of it. 👍

I enrolled in General Assembly's Software Engineering Bootcamp hoping to transfer into a software engineering role. The boast a 90 some percent employment rate and I can tell you that definitely is not true. The curriculum is really web development not software engineering and was nothing you couldn't teach yourself. The career services are basically non-existent and has me questioning why did I even waste my money.

Bootcamp is not for the faint at heart. It's an intense and wild ride. I am so glad I did it. Our instructor has real-world experience and treated us, not like students, but like colleagues he was training to do the job. Mac Lofton, our instructor, was awesome. Jasmine Bass, our career advisor, has also been instrumental in helping me build a solid resume and preparing me for the job hunt. At General Assembly, the resources are there for you.

My instructor was fantastic, and I led the class in participation and put the hours in- but the client project was a nightmare, my portfolio projects are not competitive for the job market, and outcomes program is non-existent..post grad is really just a few slack messages here and there and opportunities to do design challenges. The outcomes instructor has no real connections but just sends custom LinkedIn search strategies... Overall, I put myself into considerable debt.

It’s not the fault of the company but I entered the job market at the same time as many people who had industry experience. (massive tech layoffs last year this time). Outcomes wasn’t prepared to help in the ways they needed too, as they advertised they could.

General Assembly offers crucial support, providing personalized coaching, resume workshops, and networking opportunities.

I loved my General Assembly bootcamp! Super informative, very intensive, and incredibly supportive. Would recommend to anyone who knows they like to code.

The content was not up-to-date, and the skills are really general - same as what their company name suggested. Not helpful in making you competitive in today's job market. Not to mention the overpriced tuition.

I had great instructors who set aside time to make sure each student felt like they were understanding the course material. Ben Manning and co-instructors Austin and Mark were very great at leading engaging discussions and class projects. I was able to take what I learned from this course and apply it to my web production role.

The course definitely helped me learn to code and be a software engineer. I am most disappointed I am almost 3 months post grad and still have not found a job. I thought this would be a lot different post graduation.

The ease of creating the canvas account and being able to complete the course on the go was excellent! That should be a marketing point.

The instructors I had were the best part of my experience. Rod and Daijea were attentive and insightful.

I do wish there had been more transparency about the current job market during recruitment. It's tough out there right now.

My GA experience came at a very pivotal point in my professional career. I decided to leave the financial industry and jump into tech with absolutely no knowledge or experience with coding and software. GA was so welcoming to me and made me feel like I belonged there. I looked into many coding bootcamps before making my selection but eventually I chose GA because it felt so homely, amazing staffs, and beginner friendly for people getting into code for the first time. I love GA and I will always feel indebted to them for everything they were able to give me.

Will you learn enough to get feel comfortable? No. Will you learn enough to get a job? Maybe. I was not the best coder in class, but I was far from the worst. By the end of the program, my portfolio, compared to my counterparts was one of the top best looking portfolios my cohort (class) had. So whats the issue? GA makes the claim that they are the #1 bootcamp and they staff more grads than any other bootcamp. If that is true, then that just means that other bootcamps arent staffing at all, or they atleast know they shouldnt be making that claim. After 1 year, I have seen GA provide a handful of Fortune 500 job opportunities. With that being said, not all job offers are in the industry you are trying to get into. For example, the job posting may be for UI/UX and you went through a software engineering course. If that wasnt the issue, then the job available wasnt even in your town, may not even be in your state. Basically, you either have to be lucky or move across the country for this opportunity.

GA also makes the claim that you have 1 on 1 coaching experience. Which is technically true, because you can request 1 on 1 sessions, however, 90-99% of the sessions you do will be group sessions. Unless youre just inexperienced with work, resumes, applying "strategies", or things similar, that is the only way you will find these sessions beneficial. Other than that, literally 99% of it consist of an hour of people practically sitting in a circle telling each other "dont give up, keep applying."

1 year, approx. 2000 applied jobs, and $16,000 later, no job. You decide if this is an experience you are willing to risk to experience.

If youre sitting here saying "maybe he just had bad luck." Maybe. I will tell you what though, had I known then what I know now, I would have never gone through this course. Not even because of the negative experience, but I could have learned just as much on my own and a mentor for like a 3rd of the price, and thats on the expensive end.

I recently completed a course at General Assembly, and I must say, it has been a transformative experience! The instructors were knowledgeable and approachable, always ready to guide us through complex topics with ease and clarity. The course content was relevant and in tune with the demands of today's job market. What I appreciated the most was the hands-on approach to learning, which has equipped me with practical skills that I'm confident will be invaluable in my career. Highly recommend!

Course: General Assembly Javascript course
Duration: 10 weeks (Feb-Apr 2023), 6 hours of classes per week, plus optional couple hours with the junior devs if booked in advance
Format: Online
Cost: £3000 (discounted to £2700 as I am an NHS worker)
No. of students: 25
No. of teachers: 1 senior front-end web developer, 2 junior developers who'd recently finished the General Assembly full-time bootcamp.

I have decided the value of this course to me was around £1000, (equivalent to £50 per 3 hour delivered session).

Negatives:
- The first few weeks did not differ in content or teaching methods from a £10 Udemy web-development bootcamp.
- We had 3 pieces of homework and 1 final project. The 3 pieces of homework received 1 line of feedback each. I was anticipating more detailed feedback suggesting improvements to the semantics or formatting of how I coded.
- The class size was bigger than I expected. With 25 people in the class, the main format of teaching that was feasible was for the senior teacher to talk through concepts and for us to code along with him. Although this had some use, I do not understand why this was worth around £50/hour to me (of delivered content) and over £1000/hour if all students are included. It often was not hugely different from free/close-to-free content on Youtube or Udemy.

Positives:
- The senior teacher, Jay, was a good and dedicated teacher.
- All 3 staff made you feel welcome to ask for help.
- Navigating key challenging parts of the Javascript learning journey is easier with support. Such as: setting up NPM and NVM, working with a package.json file, running a development server on your computer

Like I said, the course had some value, but £3000 seems completely at odds with what was delivered.

You'd probably do a lot better, and save a good amount of money, following a Udemy course and then finding a Javascript developer local to you who can work with you one-on-one to help you navigate the few hurdles that are difficult to overcome by yourself which might only take 10-20 hours outside of a course like this.

Overall I'm very disappointed with my experience. Perhaps I had unrealistic expectations about what is possible in an online cohort course. I feel like the cost was only so high because their 3 month in-person bootcamp is closer to £10,000 and prepares you to be a developer. And this course piggybacks of that pricing structure. But I believe 6-hours/week online has proved not to be worth 30% of in-person 40-hours/week.

I will be paying off this course for the next 18-months.