What was Nicole Gumina's Experience at General Assembly?

We're pleased to announce one of the winners of SwitchUp's gift card giveaway, Nicole Gumina!

Nicole is a graduate of General Assembly. After completing an undergraduate degree in biology, Nicole wanted to position herself to take advantage of career opportunities in tech - which led her to General Assembly. In GA's software engineering course Nicole learned coding fundamentals and walked away feeling more prepared to pick up new programming languages. With help from General Assembly, she hopes to to continue building her portfolio, and eventually land a software engineering position!

We sat down with Nicole to learn more about her experience at General Assembly, and her advice for students considering enrolling in a bootcamp!

1. What is the name of the Bootcamp Course you submitted your review based on?

Remote, full time immersive software engineering course

2. Tell me about your background. What was your educational experience before joining General Assembly?

I graduated from UW Oshkosh in 2017 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a Healthcare-Business Emphasis.

3. What made you decide to pursue a career in tech?

I wanted to learn new skills and get involved with an ever changing industry. There is a lot of opportunity in tech, and learning new things is very important to me and I enjoy all of the concepts the industry has to offer!

4. Why did you decide to attend General Assembly? What were your goals for the program?

General Assembly had the best reviews, was most cost effective, and taught the most technologies that are relevant with the times for me to land a Software Engineering position. I also enjoyed the fact that it was remote, and a full time immersive course (completed in 3 months).

5. There are an increasing number of available bootcamps. Why did you decide to choose this program over others?

Please see my answer above

6. For you, what were the pros and cons of attending a bootcamp?

Pros: learn a lot of skills quickly, get involved with the tech community, cheaper than undergrad/graduate degrees.

Cons: It’s not a CS degree, you really have to prove yourself during interviews and to recruiters. A lot of jobs require you to know Java, C++, C#, .NET, we didn’t learn those. But, on the plus side, after completing this course I do feel I have the confidence/ability to pick up new programming languages.

7. Tell me a little bit about the course structure. What did you like best about the environment and teaching style?

It’s a lot of lectures and group work. I actually really enjoyed the group work because I made some good friends, and you learn a ton from one another. It was also nice to get a sneak peak of group work in the real world.

8. How did this program prepare you for a career in tech?

Learning the fundamentals is so important to kickstart a career. I’m glad I chose an institution instead of learning it on my own.

9. What's the most important thing you learned?

Learning how to learn and practice practice practice! I have friends I meet with weekly to keep our skills sharp, otherwise everything I was taught would have gone out the window.

10. What are you up to now? What challenges did you overcome to get here?

Still job searching and freelancing some projects for friends and family to build up a more robust portfolio. There is still so much to learn!

11. Tell us about what’s next. How do you plan to use your newfound skills as you build your career?

My goal is to make a difference at a company with my new skills!

12. What is your new job title (if applicable)?

Still searching :)

13. What advice do you have for people who are interested in attending a bootcamp?

Be ready for a very intense 3 months and the aftermath of finding a job. This career change was very worth it! Make sure you network any chance you get to learn about the opportunities out there as well!

Are you a bootcamp student or alum? You could be our next giveaway winner! Write a review of your program, and you'll be entered to win an Amazon gift card.