BrainStation — Local services in New York

Let me preface this review by saying that BrainStation's data science bootcamp was 100% the right career move for me; I could not have landed my new data science job without it, and do not hesitate to recommend their programs over competing bootcamps (I haven’t tried the others, but I know THIS one works). However (at the risk of sounding patronizing), I feel I should explicitly state that a bootcamp may not be the right career move for everyone–but more on that later.

My program had two distinct phases: the bootcamp proper and post-bootcamp career support, the latter of which proved invaluable to me personally. My advisor (shout-out to Annette!) was extremely knowledgeable about the job market; whereas alone I’d have been flying blind, I was instead able to rely on her expertise, which was exceedingly helpful when deciding how to invest my time or how to best present myself as an applicant. She also proved adept at keeping me motivated, optimistic, and even sane (at least, passably). I might have been able to teach myself data science alone, but (again, personally) I could not have navigated the job market alone.

My opinion of the classes is generally positive. I’d previously completed an online data science certification (while considering the career transition), and I have a background in statistics, but I’m not an expert (yet) so take my judgments with a grain of salt. They were overall effective at building a foundational, functional knowledge of data science. Occasionally, my 16-student cohort wasn’t able to finish a lesson before time ran out (because the instructor lost time providing tech support or answering questions), but not to the detriment of the experience.

Instructors were also available outside of class, and–while I didn’t attend these office hours myself–I found the instructors to be well-informed, friendly, and patient without exception. I have to imagine the office hours were helpful to those who booked them. The instructors were a great resource to us; they did not hesitate to share their experiences and perspectives in the data field, and (when possible) contextualized the things they taught within their own professional experience.

However, it was sometimes apparent that the instructors were not the people who had designed our lessons. I believe there were a couple times they identified (small) issues with the lessons, and they were not as helpful when teaching about subjects in which they weren’t as experienced. For instance, I’d have preferred to have a data analyst–rather than a data scientist–teach us Tableau. To be clear, our instructors could always guide us through the course material, but they were stumped a few times by more esoteric questions (some of which were pretty trivial, to be fair).

In hindsight I was not the kind of person to whom I’d recommend a bootcamp (though it certainly worked out well for me). I think bootcamps are probably particularly useful for recent graduates (who are eligible for internships with relatively low barriers to entry) or professionals looking to pursue more technical roles within/adjacent to their current field (whose prior experience and domain knowledge will make them desirable to employers). If you fall into either of those categories, BrainStation is an easy sell. Otherwise… it’s more complicated. A bootcamp alone will not get anybody into their desired field; they can be a solid step in that direction, but those who start farther from where they want to be will need to take more steps afterward (and, ideally, should try to get a better sense of where they...

I've had good experiences with Brainstation. I've now taken both their Data Science and Machine Learning certificate programs, and I'll be commenting on the Data Science one here.

First off, the instructors I've had have been top notch. Andrew was my instructor this go round, and it was evident that this guy works data science for a living. You can tell by the way he codes, changes code on the fly at such speed, and debugs code when it's not working. He also seems to be genuinely enchanted with Data Science as a whole. He answered all questions, even my dumb questions, clearly and cleanly.

The course content itself is solid. I highly recommend you know Python prior to taking this course, rather than just knowing a programming language in general. Everything is coded in Python from day 1, to include using some more "advanced" features like list comprehensions, so having a good grasp of Python I think is integral to your experience with these courses. The only thing I really wasn't high on in the course content was the Statistics section; it's simply too large and broad of a topic to cover in the scope of this course. In my opinion, a basic statistics background should already be had before jumping into Data Science. Most classes and topics are like that, but the statistics portion really stuck out to me.

Jupyter notebooks are provided, so the material is flexible and easy to work with. The instructors provide solutions-included notebooks after the lessons, which is handy for someone like me that wants to watch them work the problems and then figure them out in my own manner later.

Due to the nature of these part-time courses, and the material covered in such a short time, don't expect to just listen to lectures and be good at Data Science. You will need to work through the Jupyter notebooks on your own time, and do additional research on your own as well. This should be expected for anyone who has ever coded before, but for those who might think it's a sit back and learn it all class, it's...

First, I want to say that the building where BrainStation and its parent company, Koncord, are located is beautiful and very welcoming. I also want to mention the ladies who man the front desk and work as recruiters. They called me to confirm if I was attending the panel events and my purpose for attending BrainStation events; however, I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t keep it 100.

I didn’t appreciate those ladies calling me out of nowhere without warning or announcements. I have also been unemployed for nearly two years after getting laid off in November 2022, but I am currently working a part-time seasonal role as of August 2024 to make ends meet. It's a struggle to find a full-time role in this employer’s market, and many others are victims of layoffs and dealing with prolonged unemployment. That said, keep in mind I applied for a role at BrainStation, for which you guys decided to let AI determine I wasn’t qualified.

I find it very predatory, rude, and out of touch to use these panel speaking events as a way to pitch folks, pyramid scheme-style, for certification classes that cost up to $3K—especially when you know we are in a white-collar recession—as if that would guarantee me a job at the end of the 8-week course. Newsflash, buddy...it won’t. A $500 scholarship isn’t going to do anything, and the fact you guys had two white women pitch this to me, a Black person, makes it even shadier.

Also, you guys didn’t have snacks and drinks available for visitors. Not hospitable at all. Red...