Metis - CLOSED

I just graduated from the 1st cohort of the Chicago Metis Data Science Bootcamp last week, and I am already getting interviews for these great Data Science positions that I would not be qualified for without the going through Metis at all! The 12 weeks... Read More were intense and sometimes even brutal, but I honestly could not have done this much on my own. We learned to code in Python, statistics related to Data Science, supervised and unsupervised machine learning algorithms, and even did 5 projects from collecting data, building models, to presenting the analysis in front of a large group of audiences in just a short period of time. The instructors cared very much about each student's success so we got a lot of support. The Metis staff, especially our career advisor Ashley, were also super helpful to ensure that we would land our dream job successfully after the Bootcamp. We would spend the time to polish our resume, practice interviews, network with companies so that we are ready for the real challenge after the Bootcamp. Overall, I highly recommend Metis to anyone interested in switching career path to Data Science!!!

I took the 6 week machine learning course from Metis after seeing the instructor, Jeremy Watt, present at a few meet-ups around Chicago.

Most of the time when someone teaches me a topic like Machine Learning or some very math intensive subject I feel... Read More less smart than I did before. With Jeremy I felt smarter. He made things that seemed very complicated seem simple, things that seemed very different from one another seem fundamentally similar. Jeremy focused a lot on the geometric intuition at the base of machine learning so that the things we were doing made sense and things that seemed completely separate and discussed in entirely disparate vocabulary, like SVMs and Logistic Regression, or how all the optimization procedures like back propagation and linear regression are actually, in practice, done with gradient descent . Over the past couple of years of trying to teach myself machine learning I have built up questions and things that had puzzled me that I could not figure out on my own and I had the sense that this was the one place where I could finally get them answered.

The class was very relaxed in a way that let people ask questions without worrying about seeming stupid. I can't think of a single question that I left unasked. At the same time there were a lot of questions asked that were completely over my head so there were some pretty high-level things being discussed that would be worth the time of people that are more advanced in math than I am.

We did not have do individual projects in this six week class. We bulk of our class was devoted to coding our own version of sklearn. I had worked with sklearn and was pretty comfortable with it but after having coded my own object-oriented version of the major machine learning models I really feel like I know what is going on under the hood. Before I could use them, now I feel like I own them.

There is no explicit framework for providing career support and there was none promised. There is a good deal of contact with alumni and Metis itself provides a lot of presentations and events that provide good networking opportunities. Jeremy spent some of the last week with some very practical advice about the job market for machine learning.

Jeremy is a unique person. He is both a practitioner and theoretician, running a thriving consulting group, doing major projects with on-line learning and having written, with Reza Borhani, a text-book from a major academic publisher that deals with machine learning in a clear, comprehensible, but rigorous way. Taking this class was a unique opportunity that I would recommend to anyone.

Immersive Python focused data science bootcamp focused on Statistics, Machine Learning, communication, and design. Created end-to-end data projects that utilized unsupervised learning, NLP, and deep learning concepts.

This was a great experience technically... Read More and personally. The Metis team is EXCELLENT and go to great lengths to support us in every way. You learn a lot - so get ready for a roller coaster ride. Career support is exceptional!

I don't believe i will ever have a similar experience again. So intense, so productive and at the same time so much fun.. I did a lot of research, connected alumni's from different bootcamps and ended up at Metis. I spent 3 months and it was the most... Read More efficient 3 months of my life. All the professional staff from instructors to program managers were amazing and so supportive. It is more than just a tech bootcamp. Metis has a nice culture and I love the continuous communication with alumni. I am so happy to be a part of this great family.

This is a review of Metis's full-time, 3 month data science bootcamp.

Pros:
Metis focuses on integrating all aspects of data science into every project, from project design to selecting the tools and data you'll use, getting quickly to a minimum viable... Read More project, and iterating to test and improve it. I was impressed with my fellow students' projects and with my own. Everyone went away feeling good about what they'd done and what they learned. The collaborative environment was a major part of what made the Metis experience valuable. We learned so much just helping each other out with problems and bouncing ideas off of each other. The teachers were excellent and always eager to give helpful advice and think through different aspects of your projects. The tools and methods we used are modern and highly in demand in the industry.

Cons:
The lectures weren't always great, especially the math-heavy ones. If I was approaching these concepts with no background at all, I think I would struggle to follow the lectures. They're working on improving it, though.
We barely touched Hadoop/Spark, I'd rather we either just skipped it or actually dove in. Skimming it wasn't helpful.

Overall it was an incredible experience and I would recommend anyone interested in a career change to attend.

If you are attending a bootcamp program, you're shelling out a lot of money - which means your expecting a return on that investment. Metis operates as if any value they confer to you is a bonus, that they don't have any responsibilities. They throw the... Read More old "feature not a bug" story out when you ask for qualified instruction. "This is like the real world. Your employers aren't going to just give you the resources!" Yes, and that's why they're paying you instead of you giving them $14,000. Hopefully they have started fixing this, but from what I've heard, the experience was similar in the spring (haven't talked to summer yet). There's a reason Metis has no job guarantee while most other places do.

Atmosphere: The atmosphere is very culty. This is a rare review not because most people haven't experienced it, but because there is tremendous pressure to "drink the kool-aid" and not say anything negative. As long as you're job searching, if you want any recommendation or evidence that you didn't sit on your hands for the last 3 months, you're stuck pandering.

Curriculum: Metis doesn't "cover" anything past the most basic techniques you'd learn in STAT201 and programming you can learn for free online. They *mention* all the buzzword topics and you're left with a familiarity that they exist. Modifying the libraries to make them work better with your data or improve speed? Anything that might be expected of an *actual* data scientist? Forget about it. The instructors (with the notable exception of the curriculum designer) have been analysts who couldn't hack it in the commercial world and wanted to call themselves "senior data scientist".

Materials: Basically all instructional materials are available in any free tutorial online. Any Kaggle competition will get you more impressive experience than these projects. Metis tries to pass them off as "real-world", which is like trying to pass off a McDouble as a health-food item. It's just 100%, indisputably not. Want actual real-world experience for free? Volunteer on DataKind. Want good pedantic projects? Try Kaggle or the Open Data Science Masters. Want a book? There are many out there for free, and Metis doesn't add anything beyond it. The only valuable materials were some ipython notebook walkthroughs, but the same thing can be copy-pasted from python walkthroughs online if you Google it.

Teaching Support: The instructors are barely familiar with the curriculum, let alone qualified enough to teach it. You'll have to look elsewhere.

Job Support: Job support is decent if you want to work for second rate companies that can't compete at college career fairs. I will say that they work hard and set you up if you really need an interview, but this city is full of people hiring! How hard can it be to do that on your own and through connecting to folks at Meetup events?

Students: The reason that it's 2 stars instead of 1 is that the students are brilliant. Still, this isn't the place for lasting friendships - it's very business-like. Currently working with alums.

Outside Support: Need help after hours? Good luck. The instructors clock out and will talk to you tomorrow when you're busy with the next day's work.

Location: Pretty convenient location in SOMA. The building is reasonably nice but has problems with theft. Each cohort seems to have a MacBook go missing.

Conclusion: After Metis, I can reasonably guess that any organization claiming to help you gain the tools and experience to be a "Data Scientist" in 3 months is fraudulent in that claim. Metis certainly is. If you're set on a bootcamp, try elsewhere.

Metis is so successful because their project based curriculum prepares you exactly for what you would do in a data science job. You graduate with a portfolio that many people (even full fledged data scientists!) are impressed with. The experience you... Read More get from wrangling with real life data cannot be taught in a text book. Metis exposes you to most of the tools you would encounter in the work force, but also prepares you for how to deal with a technology that you haven't seen before. The job support is amazing - from mock technical and soft skills interviews, to resume writing, to how to ask someone you admire in the industry to coffee, to their broad hiring network, it really can't be beat.

Metis 100% delivered on it's promise to accelerate students' career in data science. I came to Metis with a thorough education in math, statistics, and coding, yet I never could have transitioned to the data science industry without the curriculum and... Read More job preparation Metis offers. From start to finish, the program is well executed. Each day, week, and project is structured with a specific intention, and the topics covered fully prepared me for my job interviews and networking opportunities. The career support is essentially endless, no question is too small for the Career staff and they support you every step of the way to land on an opportunity that is the best fit for you.

Overall, one of the best decisions of my life so far. I went from working a dull, low-paying job that I hated to working on interesting software every day, and more importantly, being good at it. Metis helped me a lot on my path - mostly in ways that... Read More you can't mimic from teaching yourself this stuff at home. Metis helped me meet other Data Scientists and placed me in a group of aspiring Data Scientists who all wanted to work and learn together.

Pros:
- Pre-work helps get you up to speed if you don't know Python, Stats or need a refresher.
- State of the art instruction in Python coding and gentle intro into the world of engineering.
- Emphasis on real-worldiness preps you constantly to talk to employers, coworkers, people at meet-ups and know what you're talking about.
- Social atmosphere is indispensible. Talking to other people and collaboratively problem solving is a huge part of what learning is, you can't mimic it at home. Nor can you mimic being introduced to employers, hearing talks from data scientists, or getting feedback from a real hiring manager on a fake job interview.

Cons:
- You can literally learn everything they teach on your own, and in many instances you will, because it's the only way to actually learn how to work with computers. It's not like history where you can sit, take notes, read a book and then become an expert - you have to do it for hours with no real hand-holding to become efficient.
- At times the course felt like it could have covered more, skipping the basics, moving deeper into some of the areas. Bread of background means natural gaps in knowledge that can't be filled in over 12 weeks.
- Focus (and job outcomes) tend to be more on Data Analysis than on cutting edge engineering - but this is also a function of the backgrounds of applicants. Those with lots of training in math and stats occasionally end up in amazing roles.

TL;DR - Highly recommend for grad-schoolers, college grads in the sciences and people from mildly analytical backgrounds, especially if you already have stats and programming exposure. Expectation management is key: you're not going to go in bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and come out Andrew Ng, you have to go get a PhD if you want that. But you will likely come out with an awesome job doing stuff you're passionate about - which is why you should want to become a Data Scientist, and go to Metis to learn, in the first place.

I attended the DS Intro session with Metis NYC this summer. It was a fantastic experience.

Instructor - Sergey is great. Let's take knowledgeable for granted. His enthusiasm and interest really drove the class. As a working data scientist, he brings real... Read More world perspective to the theory and practice we learned.

Group - I was really surprised at the diversity of backgrounds in our group and the camaraderie that developed. The class never become competitive and instead it was a very supportive, casual environment. After the course, a number of us stay in touch and I'm sure will continue to do so. Metis alumni network makes this easy as well and there are continuing events at the same location.

For the Intro session, job support is really one on one interaction with the instructor (which is great) and introduction through the alumni network. This is **different** from the full bootcamp which provides extensive job support and coaching. I'm very happy with the support I received and the relationship with Sergey that will continue. I'm just starting to leverage the alumni network.