The $10,000 UX/UI Bootcamp. Is It Worth It?

About a year ago I noticed an ad on my Instagram feed about a UX/UI Bootcamp in San Francisco. I had already been informally dabbling in the field and decided to take the bait.

I clicked on the ad, submitted my email address and within a day an older woman with a New York accent called me. Classic digital marketing funnel I thought. Her voice reminded me of my grandma’s and so I asked her where she was from. The Bronx, she said. Just like my grandma.

Her sales pitch was spot on. She developed a friendly rapport with me and sold me on the idea that the UX/UI Bootcamp was exactly what I was looking for. It was a part time, 6 month long, in-class program that promised you’d be career ready by the end of it. It sounded perfect, but I was still somewhat skeptical.

After a few days of thinking about it and reviewing the materials they gave me, I decided to sign up and bite the bullet. The bill? About $10,000.

Fast forward one year. I’m currently working at a design studio in New York City. The project I’m working on is for the Fire Department of New York (FDNY). FDNY is the second largest fire department in the world and in 2014 responded to 1.4 million emergency calls. Our studio is redesigning the dispatching system which receives and responds to those calls.

The question is, could I have gotten here without attending the UX/UI Bootcamp?

First, let me lay out the pros and cons of my experience.

Pros

Curriculum: Language, Process & Skills

Any given profession has a specific language, set of processes, and skills that are considered the norm. When it comes to design, employers are looking for those who can speak about their process and skills using industry-standard language.

Before signing up for the UX/UI Bootcamp, I had created several websites, knew how to use certain design tools, and was able to think about and design a product from the user’s perspective. What I didn’t have, however, were the more formalized skills: command of certain industry standard tools, and the language to describe my process.

What the UX/UI Bootcamp offered me was a chance to learn how to walk the walk and talk the talk of the design world. For me, this was something that I don’t think I could have done without the curriculum, bootcamp, and the support of the experts guiding me through it.

Accountability & Support

Accountability and support are important elements many people need to motivate themselves to do something challenging. One reason I decided to sign up for the bootcamp was that I was having trouble motivating myself to create a portfolio. I knew that this was a must to get my foot in the design industry door, but I had been putting it off for months.

Having an instructor in charge of delivering curriculum and providing deadlines, helped me complete projects that I could put on my portfolio. Additionally, the critique and feedback that the instructor, TA’s and my classmates provided, helped me grow as a designer in a way that would have been unlikely on my own.

The Network

Being part of a small, tight knit community of up-and-coming designers was invaluable. The relationships I built in the bootcamp weren’t something that I could have easily built outside of the program. There was a camaraderie that the environment provided which helped me naturally develop a network that may last long into my career.

Career Counseling

One of the most valuable lessons from the bootcamp was learning how to navigate my career change. Design is as much about communicating your ideas in a compelling and convincing way as it is about problem solving. Part of this has to do with communicating who you are to an employer and why they should invest in you.

I learned how to do this by developing my:

• Personal Brand Statement

• LinkedIn Profile

• Resume

• Portfolio

Before the bootcamp I only had a resume. A lousy resume. I had no idea what the industry demanded in terms of even getting an interview, let alone getting a job. The career counseling provided me with the knowledge and tools I needed to get my foot in the door.

Cons

The $10,000

First and foremost, bootcamps are expensive. They are a huge investment in both money and time and as with any investment, there are risks. In this case there is a risk that you may not find a job afterwards, that you may find that you aren’t even into the career, or that the bootcamp doesn’t prepare you for the realities of the job.

But given the right mindset, motivation, and discipline, $10,000 is trivial compared to the value that a successful career in design could potentially offer you.

The Job Guarantee

There are some bootcamps that claim a 99% employment rate upon completion. I call B.S. When you see that statistic thrown around, be sure to read the fine print because often times, it comes with a laundry list of exceptions.

The bootcamp I attended didn’t offer a job guarantee and the reality is that the majority of students in my program didn’t find a job in the field upon completion. The reasons however, were varied. Some weren’t ready, others decided to stay in their current careers, and others decided to wander a bit before entering the industry.

However, the majority of those who took the bootcamp seriously and were hungry for a job, found one.

The Real World Experience

I noticed one question that would come up over and over again during my initial interviews. It had to do with working on a live project. What I mean by that is working with developers to build something that is for an actual client and that will actually be used by the client.

This is one thing that almost all bootcamps fail to provide: experience of handing off designs to real developers, acting as dev support during the building process, and actually shipping the product upon completion. Employers want to know that you have experience in communicating your design ideas to developers and then supporting them in the build process.

The solution is to find work outside of your bootcamp where you can practice this. For me, I found a non-profit that needed help designing an app that they wanted to develop. This gave me a huge advantage when it came to applying for jobs because I was able to talk about communicating and working with developers.

Is It Worth It?

As with most of life’s big questions, the answer is more grey than black or white. Simply put: it depends.

Let’s go back to the question of whether I could have gotten to where I am today without the UX/UI Bootcamp. I believe that it may have been possible given enough time. The problem is I don’t know how much time it would have taken to develop as a designer without it. And even more unknown is if I would have been able to sustain my growth as a designer over a longer period of time without the accountability and support the bootcamp provided.

I can absolutely say that the bootcamp I enrolled in was worth it. I had the time, the savings, and the energy to devote myself to it and toward my career change. I was hungry to learn and had a burning desire to start my new career.

At the end of the day, however, it’s up to the student to get what they want out of any given bootcamp or more generally, educational experience. Of course some bootcamps are better than others and it’s up to you to do the research to figure out which might be the best fit for your situation.