Flatiron School

I'll give it you straight after going through the whole 6 month experience along with some of the after program career services track.

The first 2 phases or around 3 months was great. The instructors were knowledgeable and enthusiastic when it came to... Read More teaching and about the field itself. They were there to help when they could and assist you in succeeding. There was a lot of work to be done on time during this phase and a lot of additional reading as well. I can say that I learned the most from these 2 phases. It also seemed like the instructors for these 2 phases were from the original Designation school based in Chicago which had a great reputation (part of the reason why I enrolled in the program).

So the first 2 phases went great, and I came in excited and bright-eyed for the in-person phases on the NYC campus. Now this is where the program goes downhill. While I did learn some new things about UX design and research, the instructors were not attentive or great at teaching. I understand the importance of repetition when it comes to the end-to-end design process, and I don't have a problem with it. Actually, I found it helpful that it was repetitive so we had the chance to use our skillset we learned from the previous phases and apply research/design methodologies that worked in specific situations. I also found the repetitive nature of weekly presentations to be helpful in a sense that we had more experience in creating slideshows and presenting.

Now comes the bad stuff. The most amount of design feedback anyone in my cohort received on our presentations and project was in phase 1 and 2. The instructors in the in-person phases would just deflect any relevant questions with "it depends". Of course, "IT DEPENDS". Students are asking because they are weighing out certain decisions within the project framework and asking for a seasoned designers opinion on it. I value autonomy, but at that point when everything triggers the same "it depends" response is, honestly, infuriating and condescending. It's more of an excuse not to do an instructors job. We are in a bootcamp and it's the safest place to fail there--but there was no guidance in any design choices through the in-person phases. The most amount of feedback we received were about the presentation slides and style. While, this is helpful, it's not the feedback we are solely looking for as designers--at a certain point, we don't care what you personally think about certain slides as long as the content is good (but no feedback really there so we will never know). Additionally, the attitudes of the instructors were unprofessional. Personally, I had no issues with any but a lot of my classmates in every cohort had problems with the attitude of most instructors. There was a very passive-aggressive cattiness that was directed at students and was not controlled in a professional, learning environment. Most of the time, the instructors came in later and left earlier than students.

I think the quality of instructors went way down after Flatiron purchased Designation and scaled up to many locations. Being a design instructor at Flatiron seems to be the easiest decent paying job ever. We were more micromanaged about student benefits that we expected to have but couldn't because of their process mess-ups. The programs conflict resolution was a joke and their student selection measures and support were also laughable. I've seen this in many cohorts as they ruined the experiences of many students by not selecting capable designers. Honestly, it makes sense that the organization got rid of the design program because if they wanted keep that program up, Flatiron really needed to look inward and make a lot of changes.

Now career services is iffy at best. The way Flatiron sells you their program is that they have 96% successful job rate after the program for it's students. First off, this is highly contestable as the numbers seem to high to be true. Also, they sell you that the school has a great (already) built-up network with employers to help with prospective job-looking alumni after they graduate. The iffy part of it is that covid definitely took a toll on their "network" so that is due to uncontrolled external circumstances. However, the coaching is subpar and the Money-Back-Guarantee is really a sham (don't enroll because you think you will get your money back--they will fight you tooth and nail on everything to not give you the money back). They have many organizational problems within their employment team which causes alumni to face negative consequences of their bad company management. The amount of employers they have in their "network" is seemingly 0 to few very unrelated positions--which is mind-blowing if they already had a great network before when advertising. And after all that, all they do is deflect responsibility at the alumni seeking jobs about personal accountability. I am telling you right now that job seeking alumni are doing everything they can do network and apply to get jobs because it's our career and our life, so make it seem like we are dropping the ball. For the $17k price point with the advertisement before enrollment, certain services are expected.

Overall, it is a bloated organization that does software engineering really well. But I would stay clear of their design programs if they relaunch in the future.

They won't do the job for you, you need to work hard on your own, but if you know what you want, go for it! I met a lot of interesting people and gained a ton of priceless experience. For 15 weeks I learned more then I've tried to learn online after work... Read More for 3 years. Flatiron school is not the only option, but it was my choice and I don't regret it.

When I started the Software engineering bootcamp at Flatiron I wasn't super sure about my decision to change my career. A lot of the stories I had heard about people going to bootcamps and changing there lives seemed to good to be true, and to a degree... Read More they are. Nothing about going to a bootcamp is easy and none of the payoffs are as insane as they sound. A bootcamp is not as intense a transition as some of these testimonials make it out to be. For me it felt like a pretty smooth transition from learning all about the skills and mindset required to be in this field, to job searching, to landing a job and doing the work. Flatiron was exactly what I needed to accomplish this. I attended at the Denver branch in the RiNo arts district. Everyone said the Denver branch was special and by the end of the program I truly believed it myself! The staff and other students alike were so understanding of what we were going through and they were incredibly knowledgeable as well. Sure I learned all the skills I needed, but I don't think I would have been able to find the same success if the staff didn't introduce me to technical skills like, imposter syndrome, taking breaks, and supporting your peers. They showed me what I would be going up against as a software engineer in such an empathic and genuine way and I am really grateful. Of course, Flatiron is well regarded as a bootcamp and they also have a money back guarantee , which were factors that drew me in. At the end of the day, I got a job where I use my new skills and I make much more money than I used. Despite the fact the world went on lockdown a week after I graduated I was never worried. I knew with the skills, advice, and connections I had made at Flatiron it was only a matter of time.

I started my Data Science program in 2019 in self-paced format and graduated in 2020.
The self paced format is advantageous in that it allows me to determine the schedule and intensity of training that suited me.
I must say that Flatiron School is very... Read More well suited to this format, because instead of traditional video lectures it offers theory and tasks in jupyter notebook format, as well as video chats with teachers.
Curriculum is wide enough to cover many of the necessary fundamentals of DS. However, you need to understand that in order to go deeper into any of the topics, you need to
independent additional dive, because it's not possible to cover everything at once. Therefore, I can confidently say that such a program is optimal as a start.

Overall, I had a fantastic experience with Flatiron School. The program enabled me to get a data science job that ticked all my boxes. I was able to make a dramatic career transition (during a pandemic, no less!) from academia/non-profits to tech thanks... Read More to this program.

Background: When I was applying to bootcamps, I already had a PhD (in a humanities discipline) and lots of data science and programming tutorials under my belt. I chose Flatiron School because the curriculum looked good, the program was only 5 months when done full-time, and they offered an income share agreement as a payment option.

Getting in: First I had a call with a representative to assess my interest and experience in data science. Then I got access to some preparatory materials that included basic Python and a little bit of calculus. Once these were done, I had a technical interview with a Flatiron School instructor, consisting of a few basic programming questions and a conversation about some math/calculus concepts. The preparatory materials were enough to help me be ready for this interview, but the real point of the interview is to assess whether you can learn quickly and take feedback/correction well. After this, I was accepted to the program and chose my start date.

The program: For the duration of the program, I had one instructor, an "educational coach" (to help with motivation, study skills, etc.) and a cohort of fellow bootcampers. We spent four hours per week in live lecture/office hours, and I had two half-hour one-on-ones with my instructor each week, too. My cohort had its own Slack channel where we could ask the instructor or each other questions and do daily standups. Here's a list of topics we covered (not exhaustive):

General Python programming, with particular focus on NumPy, Pandas, and Matplotlib
Git, GitHub, and principles of version control
Basics of data visualization
Regression (linear, logistic, multiple linear, polynomial, etc.)
SQL and general principles of database design
Basics of object-oriented programming
APIs, web scraping, and working with JSON files
A broad survey of statistical topics, including combinatorics, permutations, distributions, central limit theorem, hypothesis testing, and Bayesian stats
Time series analysis
Basics of linear algebra
Survey of machine learning algorithms and techniques, including k nearest neighbors, decision trees, random forests and other ensemble methods, support vector machines, PCA, k means, and recommendation systems
A little introduction to Spark via PySpark
Basics of graph theory/network analysis
Basics of NLP
Survey of deep learning topics, including RNNs, CNNs, and transfer learning
A little intro to AWS and how to deploy a machine learning algorithm into production.

Near the end of the program, I also got access to a career prep curriculum, which contained readings and exercises relating to résumés, LinkedIn, networking, building a professional web presence, etc. Flatiron School recently added a post-bootcamp curriculum of extra stuff to study while job-searching, including more work with SQL, and intro to R, and some guidelines for making your projects look better on GitHub. I'm really glad they created these additional resources, since these are things I went out and studied on my own because they were important for my job search. Flatiron is constantly updating the curriculum, and students are welcome to submit suggestions or corrections to be addressed by the curriculum team.

An average day of bootcamp involved a lot of independent reading and work on the labs provided in the curriculum, interrupted by a lecture/group meeting with instructor and classmates to go over the material assigned for that day. This format was great for me because I learn better when I can focus on something on my own for a while and then have a chance to ask my questions and hear other people's questions, too. Each day's meeting covered a certain chunk of the curriculum, but there was a lot of flexibility to work ahead or take more time on something if I wanted. Although you could always spend more time on things, I found it was possible to complete each week's material to my own satisfaction in 40-45 hours on average.

Overall, the curriculum prepared me well for my job search. The projects I built during bootcamp were of a high enough quality that I could present them during job interviews. The capstone project is totally open-ended, so you can design it to show off skills relevant to the types of jobs that appeal to you. For each project, I had to do both a non-technical presentation and a code review with my instructor, and these experiences were extremely helpful once I started looking for a job. This is definitely one of the reasons to do a bootcamp rather than just studying on one's own. If someone I knew were looking for a bootcamp today, I would tell them to ask whether a program includes this kind of project work, since it's the best way to prepare for/show that you're prepared for real data science work.

Career services: My experience with career services at Flatiron definitely made the program worth the cost. As soon as I graduated, I started working with a career coach who helped me with my résumé, mock interviews, web presence, and general job search strategy. My coach was amazing, especially at keeping me motivated when the pandemic brought my job search to a screeching halt. It was really helpful to have someone to talk to each week about my job search, and she was super responsive to any questions I had about how to respond to e-mails, networking tactics, etc.

Highlights: The best parts of the bootcamp for me were my instructor, my career coach, and the projects I built.

Improvements: I would have liked to see a little more space in the curriculum given to ethics, maybe some case studies about practical applications of data ethics. There was a brief overview of data ethics in theory ("Hey, you should only make ethical use of people's personal information! There is bias in AI!"), but since this is an issue that affects all aspects of data science, it would be good to give it a little more weight.

I graduated from the online self-paced software engineering program. To me, Flatiron's strength is its support structure. The school bends over backwards to provide multiple channels of support. I was originally slated to join the in person program in... Read More Seattle, but switched to the online program because it made more sense with my family. I was nervous about a lack of support structure in the online program, but that proved far from the case. There was an abundance of instructor and student led Zoom sessions, focused on relevant topics throughout, including open office hours. The curriculum resides in Flatiron's online platform called Learn. While in the platform, there is always the option of clicking the 'ask a question' button. Questions are displayed to other students who can answer, but Flatiron also has instructors monitoring the questions. You're awarded 'Karma' points for answering questions. I only was able to answer two questions because the instructors were so quick and solid. There are multiple slack channels monitored by section leaders, depending on your place in the program. Finally, you have your educational and career coaches. Your coaches keep tabs on your progress, well being and ultimately job search. Everyone I worked with at Flatiron was enthusiastic, supportive and enjoyable to work with. The curriculum was a combination of reading, videos and test driven coding exercises. The exercises followed a logical progression from programming basics to React/Redux frontends with Rails driven APIs. The curriculum stressed principles and problem solving over recipes. There were some video based walk-throughs that I was not a huge fan of, mostly because I'd rather read or work through problems. But those were few and far between. Most videos were recorded zoom sessions from previous cohorts. Those were enjoyable, informative and even inspirational at times. I experienced a few hiccups and inconsistencies in the Learn system along the way but nothing too catastrophic. Early on I used the 'ask a question' button a couple times and had it figured out in minutes. Later on I could usually work around issues. The cool thing about Learn is that it's built upon Github. So you can dive into the code, troubleshoot and offer up suggestions via pull request. This ensures a pretty healthy evolution. Most of the problems I experienced were right after a version change. Within a couple weeks the kinks were worked out pretty well. That version switch was optional by the way. I actually think the option to contribute to the health of the system is a pretty valuable learning experience. Flatiron is owned by WeWork which started experiencing problems while I was in the program. Flatiron did a great job of communicating as the issue emerged. I did notice some instructor shuffling and maybe an increase in time to book project reviews. But that was a matter of book a review maybe a few days out vs next day. I felt Flatiron was dedicated to providing quality education and honoring their commitments. If anything, I think the WeWork issue just slowed campus expansion. It's worth keeping an eye on, but my sense is Flatiron is fairly independent and in control of their internal affairs. During my time at Flatiron the COVID pandemic and protest in response to George Floyd's death emerged. Folks at Flatiron did a fantastic job of communicating, supporting and adjusting to the uncertain times with heartfelt compassion. The Flatiron family, both staff and students is diverse across all spectrums. The school takes pride in its diversity, and is all the better for it. Going into this program I had some experience coding, including a couple computer science classes in college, years ago. My degree is in Forestry, so technical, but not rocket science. My job leading up to this was pretty much 'the computer guy', including sys admin, configuration, help desk, some scripting and low code development. Before that, I was in EMS. I'm an EMS instructor of several years, which informs my respect for Flatiron's staff. I took this course to fill in gaps, refine my skill-set and land a full-time coding gig. The curriculum was challenging but digestible. The volume of material was significant. This is not a casual endeavor. I juggled a full-time job and raising a toddler. There were many late nights and dark times but Flatiron folks were there for me. I did land a full-time gig before graduation, during the COVID lock down. I kind of lucked out, I was finishing my final project and hadn't fully ramped my job search up yet. The position was presented by my career coach, and seemed to be a good culture fit for me, so I applied. I do live in Seattle, a tech hub. The career coaching was informative, supportive and valuable. Overall this was one of the better educational experiences of my life. It just worked for me. It was a good blend of prescriptive exercises, open ended portfolio work and support. Flatiron folks just seem to care and are interested in your success.

I am a free lancer with top rated account in UPWORK. I know java, Javascript and VBA. I joined FLatiron School to expand my experience. I completed the online programming course except last module and here is my comments: 1- The administration is very... Read More bad. They don't know anything. wrong answers and late answers. 2- All of it is self learning with small amount of support. If you want support, you have to wait for 1 hour in queue. 3- The material at the beginning was good but last module was really bad, no pattern. every lesson was made by different person so you cannot learn way of coding. 4- Job support is not a real support, they just put you under pressure to make you keep looking my advise is to learn yourself from any website. they just put pressure to make sure that you are doing lessons and looking for job. you can do it yourself without paying all of that money.

Long story short, FlatIron acquired SecureSet. SecureSet strung me along for a year on this new online cybersecurity program, that never happened. They ended up closing their doors in Tampa two months after I made the commitment to quit my job and attend... Read More in person. Then I was promised that I could attend their next cohort in Colorado because they were allowed to offer it online there. That also fell through because 2 weeks before that class was supposed to start, I was informed that they also were not authorized to offer the class online. Now 2 months out of work because of the career move I was SUPPOSED to be making, I had nowhere to go. I saw FlatIron offered and ADVERTISED an online course in cybersecurity analytics, so I signed up for that, and was accepted, and yet again, even after speaking with them and explaining everything that has happened to this point and them telling me how awful that is and they are happy to have me onboard....I get another email saying they ALSO were not authorized to give this class online. I was told (This is a direct quote from an email) "Flatiron School and SecureSet do have the same parent company and are sister schools. We have sought appropriate guidance from our regulators under the circumstances. At this time, Flatiron School does not have regulatory approval for the cybersecurity programs - either online or in-person - from our Florida regulator and so would be unable to enroll Florida residents in the Online Cybersecurity Analytics program". So again,... my wife is in tears because of the sacrifices we have been making for months, and having the rug pulled out from under us AGAIN by people who don't seem to know what is going on within their own company. What rubs salt into the wound, is that a week later I received an email from FlatIron telling me I was approved for a scholarship for that class....for a class I am not allowed to attend.

(I did not attend but I had to select answers to the questions below in order to submit my review).

I was looking forward to starting my cohort May 4th 2020 but due to some unfortunate events at FLATIRON they cancelled the full course for UI/UX design. It is fully cancelled even on the the website, UI/Ux who? it’s not even there so don’t waste your... Read More time. They said they will refund those who paid upfront in the next 30 days, but those who did ISA you’re fine. I’m disappointed.

I completed the data science course all my classmates had strong professional or academic credentials. Instructors were Joe, Sean, and Fangfang. All were extremely knowledgeable, friendly, and had real world experience. I left with all the skills of a... Read More data scientist. They put me with Diane as my job coach. She was phenomenal, went above and beyond. I happen to know that the sentiments are shared among all of her students. Diane said to expect the job search to take about 60 days. I got an offer 65 days later, from my first choice job lead, which Diane found for me. The salary is more than the 74K Flatiron boasts as their average starting on their placement stats. Overall very happy. Made great friends, connections, learned what was promised from great instructors and got placed in a great job. A+++