Mento Design Academy

I had a very difficult time choosing the right BootCamp for myself. It took more than a half year to figure it out, including dropping off from one Bootcamp after signing up. When I googled, there were too many options and different opinions. Since I... Read More was a total beginner, I didn't know "what I know and what I don't know". The only thing I knew was I wanted to be a UX designer and needed someone to guide me during the journey, but I was not sure which is the right way to go. After months of exploration, I decided to join Mento design academy and I'm very grateful and proud of my decision. Here, I'd like to share 3 reasons why I found joining Mento is so valuable. (1) The community is just the right size and the atmosphere is very supportive and welcoming. You can get connected with amazing people from all over the world via slack, online events, and online study group sessions. Thanks to this warm community, I've never felt alone since the beginning and the feeling of supporting each other with fellow students motivates me always. (2) The mentors are experienced, human, and supportive. The weekly 1on1 call helps the students ask questions, receive feedback, and be guided in the right direction. Students also can get support on slack besides the call. Personally, I appreciate my mentor always cares not only about my progress on the curriculum but also about my full-time job and mental health state. I tend to be frustrated with myself when I could not handle assignments as I planned but my mentor always encourages and guides me. What I like about Mento is its self-paced and the mentor helps us to keep on track while adjusting the journey in our real-life situations. (3) The curriculum is very practical and fresh. What I mean by "fresh" is that the contents of the curriculum are made by our mentors. So, the contents get updated based on students' feedback, and the mentor shares additional materials based on students' needs. I'm very thankful that the mentors always listen to us and stay open for feedbacks. The learning experience has been continuously improved day by day. Last but not least, The key factor of my decision to join Mento was the free call before signing up. I was very moved by the passion and thoughts behind the Bootcamp and I could not stop signing up after the call. If you are still in a doubt, I highly recommend you book a call!

Great curriculum full of valuable information, interesting and demanding assignments, a mentor who is guiding me and motivating me throughout my learning journey, supportive community, and lovely and motivating student`s group sessions - these are some... Read More of the most important things to know about Mento Design Academy for someone who wants to learn UI/UX Design. As someone who is changing her career path from journalism to UX/UI Design, I did plenty of research and preparation before I have choose Mento. And I did not regret any second. What they do is so great and you can feel all that energy, modesty, knowledge, and optimism on the whole learning path. They are also helping us to find our way and to be strategic about our careers. Even after we finish our Bootcamp, we get their support and guidance which is also one of the huge differentiators from others. I am also a mum and having their support in that context also means the world to me. To sum it up - the best UI/UX Design Bootcamp out there. And I can see this is just a beginning of a wonderful and successful story!

I have highly praised Mento to all my friends for the quality of many aspects such as the very well organized curriculum with A to Z techniques and methods, a kind and welcoming community on slack where you can implicate yourself as much as you want and... Read More need, there’s always something happening and your help and feedback is always appreciated by colleagues in their projects, everyone is very supportive. What brings it all together is a wonderful group of mentors, extremely open and sincere, motivating and supportive. Ioana is my mentor and I couldn t be more happy, ever since our first meeting I knew that we’re going to get along great, I really admire her and her humour is my type of humour and I think that’s great :) her experience is impressive and she’s very dedicated to the Mento community as well as Radu, they make a great team! Radu is the first contact I had with Mento and after one hour of talking I knew I wanted to join their community; his past experience is very inspiring, as well as the initiative of building this awesome platform that is so helpful for many of us in different parts of the globe. Thanks for everything!

Mento is one of those boot-camps that strives to offer you absolutely everything you need for your future career, without unnecessary noise, which is extremely rare to find nowadays: a structured curriculum with accurate information, perfectly balanced... Read More by practical assignments, warm mentorship sessions that help you develop your knowledge and get into the right mindset, and last but not least, a wonderful community of students and Design professionals. A rare combination of assets which make me proud to be their student. I am just my 3rd month now and I can honestly say I already feel confident to tackle design challenges, as they don`t just "teach" you what you need to know, you learn how to understand the processes and ask yourself what is the purpose of each of the methods you use or any design decision you take. You learn to bring arguments, to speak-up, to understand and articulate your decisions. I`ve never see this in any learning program I`ve been into so far, not to mention school. Even though they offer you a well needed structure, think of it as a more of a guidance system. Everything is tailored to you, your particular needs, skills, expectations, time and effort you put into learning - with the risk of using a cliché: they actually help you be the best version of yourself in terms of Design. Even though you have weekly mentorship sessions, they are always ready to offer support if needed, if you get stuck, if you have a question. You are never alone during this learning process, and you also get to interact with and learn from other students. If you are looking for a way to transition into UX Design, this is a gem! They are constantly offering everything you need for becoming a successful UX Designer, it just depends on you to learn as much as you can!

When looking into how to transition to a career in UX I began scouring the internet for different courses and boot camps. I became overwhelmed with what I found and didn't know which direction to go. My feeling of being overwhelmed quickly turned to me... Read More feeling discouraged after reading many testimonials from the different courses I found. I got used to reading quotes that said "The so called professors seemed annoyed when being asked for help", and "After finishing you were completely left on your own with no guidance." I didn't know what to do. Then I came across Mento design academy. After following Ioana and Mento on social media for a month or is I decided to take a leap of faith and sign up the course and I couldn't be more thrilled about making that decision. The mentors and community that had been created is amazing. Everyone is more than willing to help if you are stuck or have any questions. The best part in my opinion is that you can complete this course at your own pace. If you only have an extra 10 hours a week to spend doing the course your mentor will be more than happy to work around your schedule with no pressure of you needing to put more time in. You won't regret your decision joining this community!

I’ve participated before the pandemic in a 3 months course and some other shorter ones online, including some on IDF platform. So, since this is not my first UX design course, I have some terms of comparison. The difference is that this is by far the... Read More most interactive and full of practice from them all. I love the fact that I was not bombarded with information and it was delivered gradually while doing the assignments. I can easily access more if I want or need and also get guidance from my mentor when I get stuck. I think this is by far a better way to learn and remember something - by focusing on the practice. The course starts with some good pointers on how to be practical about learning, inspires you to set a goal and prepares you to use the processes and tools. By the time you start your projects, you already have some confidence because of already doing these things. My guess is this was not an easy feat, to think about how to deliver it in such a good manner. I want to congratulate everyone for the wonderful job! I think it’s really awesome!

As a tech recruiter, I had the opportunity to hire for a couple of UX roles in my career. I was always charmed by the UX team in my company, their culture, the way they approached their work and how thoughtful they were about the hiring process, and how... Read More concerned they were with the experience of the candidate. As I got to spend more time with them I became more and more interested in UX, to the point that one day I wanted to make a career change. I spent 10+ years in recruiting and I felt it was time for a change. I wanted a job through which I would be able to create a larger impact on the world. I found Mento Design Academy through UX Goodies, an Instagram account I've been following for a while since I got interested in UX. I reached out to them for an introductory call and I knew right away I wanted to go for this program. It matched perfectly to what I needed. Having a full-time job I couldn't attend live classes, so the self-paced curriculum was perfect and the mentor calls helped and guided me on the right path. Mento is a really flexible program tailored to the student, something I haven't found elsewhere. It's also one of the most affordable bootcamps out there. I can't recommend this program enough. If you're like me and you don't know which educational program to follow, cuz there are a few, then go for Mento. You won't regret it.

This is a great UX Bootcamp program for anyone looking to step into UX Design. First off, I really enjoy that this bootcamp is self-paced, especially if you've got a busy life/work schedule. They pair you up with an amazing mentor (based on your goals... Read More and aspirations in getting into UX) to share their wealth of knowledge, insights, industry experience, career guidance and support as you progress throughout your Mento journey. Mento offers a great slack community of other wonderfully talented mentors and like-minded students from all over the world. This allows you to share ideas and learn new perspectives from others with different life experiences. Connecting may be a little challenging at times due to everyone being from different time zones, but the Mento team does a fantastic job in accommodating student schedules in setting up weekly mentorship meetings and webinar events - showcasing different topics and design professionals from within the UX community. Another other great thing (that I've personally enjoyed) about this bootcamp is that it's also an introspective program. The program content is current, challenging and fun, but they also allow you to step back at the end of each chapter to reflect on what you've learned. To ask yourself "why are we learning this?" How can we/our work as designers benefit and implement this new information. This extra step helps us take stock and further develop our critical thinking skills as one moves along this program and transfers them into their career - something you may not get in other programs. The Mento team is constantly looking for feedback from its students to continually improve the program itself and make it a better learning experience for everyone. I've had a great experience with the Mento Design Academy UX bootcamp so far and am confident that the knowledge and support gained from this program will be an integral part of my success in transitioning into my UX career. And I hope it does for others as well.

My experience with the Mento Design Academy is unparalleled. This is one of a kind boot camp I would recommend to anybody without a second thought. What sets Mento apart from the competition is that the curriculum is tailored to you. You can focus on... Read More your strengths and weaknesses, while improving at your own pace. All of the mentors I have been working with are extremely supportive, and you could sense that they care about you and your success in the field. To be honest I feel like this boot camp is so much more than just a ticket to your dream job. After hours of communicating with the mentor I have grown both mentally and as a person. What is more, no matter what question you will have they are always there to help you, and the growing community of students in Slack also boosts you to network and work even harder. Additionally, besides the curriculum and 1 on 1 sessions with mentors, they usually organize Zoom events and meetings with known designers across the field who can also share their experiences with us, students. Finally, the most important success metric of any boot camp is landing a job. I am still learning, however, I am already working with clients as a freelancer. Couldn’t be any happier with my choice!

I'm really glad I ended up selecting this bootcamp among the many choices I had at my disposal. There are (4) primary reasons Mento stands out among other bootcamps: 1) The bootcamp structure is based off a mentorship relationship opposed to simply a... Read More teacher/student dynamic. Because of this, students develop a much closer and productive relationship that is more conducive to growth and development. This is essential when looking for a job, the Mentors know your goals, background, and talents. 2) Opposed to being a cookie cutter, do x y and z type of experience, Mento prioritizes critical thinking and applying true user centered design as an overarching philosophy. What this translates to is customized, personal products that allow you to stand out among others who may have followed a reused template. You infuse your personal strengths and interests, background, and goals into the work you do which creates a much more compelling candidate package in recruiter's eyes. Additionally, Mento doesn't hail any type of UX method as the ONE true method. Instead, you take each challenge as they are and critically apply what methods you think to be a good fit to solve that problem. In my eyes, that's great UX. 3) Unlike other bootcamps, the greatness doesn't end after you complete all the assignments. One of the major reasons I chose Mento is because they offer support and guidance when you actually start the job search. Instead of being left out drifting in an open sea of applications, you'll have experienced professionals coaching you along the way. Talk about a cheat code. They don't promise 100% results, no one can, but they give you blueprints, actionable advice, and access to their ridiculously expansive networks. 4) Lastly, the professionals who curated this program, namely Radu Vucea (my mentor!) and Ioana Teleanu, are industry rockstars who have spanned the gambit of content creation, corporate, startup, hiring, recruitment, and now entrepreneurship. Talk about experience. As a Mento student, you have access to their literal decades of knowledge at your disposal. The only limit to how much you can access is your own ambitions. They emphasize being available to answer questions and make it a priority to converse with their mentees weekly. This bootcamp isn't perfect, none are. It heavily hinges on how much effort you put in yourself. However, this, in my eyes, is a benefit because it helps to curate the spirit of being a self starter, something that essential in a great UXer. In my own experience as a new designer (graduated from college knowing nothing about UX), this bootcamp is helping me to accomplish exactly what I set out to do - Create a portfolio that reflects who I am, what I want to do, and the awesome work I'm capable of doing. If this sounds like it can help you become the UX designer you want to be, stop reading & sign up - https://www.mentodesign.academy/ If this review helped you make your decision, make sure to tell them Todd McCauley sent you in the "Where did you find out about Mento?" section! Thanks!