Arizona State University Bootcamps

 I have successfully completed my 6-month journey through Arizona State University FinTech Bootcamp! I enrolled in the program with no prior coding experience at all. My background consists of construction and about a decade of day trading experience. I was not sure what to make of the Bootcamp at first as I had never done online education before. I was not very tech savvy in general. The first day of class my instructor asked me a question, he said Why are you here? I thought about it for a second and explained I am there to change careers, I am tired of the physical labor, busting my back all day in the blistering heat. He told me to remember my why and stay focused. I knew it was going to be hard but I decided I was going to trust the process. With the support of my classmates and my amazing tutor/mentor Johnathan I took it one day at a time and little by little started to learn how to program. I became very passionate early on in the course and used that passion as motivation to learn as much as I could. It is a fast-paced course and definitely not for those that are not willing to put in the effort. For disclosure and full transparency, I put in easily 20- 30+ hours each week of outside class time to really absorb everything but I was more than willing as I was determined to learn and remembered my "why".  My Instructor Estevan and teacher assistant Derek were very informative and insightful, they offered office hours before and after class which I attended every one. They could not have been any more supportive of me throughout the entire journey. They knew my background of having No background as it relates to programming and were more than willing to match my effort and support me by answering any questions I had. I realized that the experience is what you make of it so I asked as many questions as I could think of and kept detailed notes. By asking so many questions in office hours and taking detailed notes of the problems I had I was able to start helping other classmates debug their errors in class. Helping others allowed me to instill within myself what I learned. I am proud to say I was announced as one of the Top students in the class upon completion as I maintained an A+ average and missed no classes or assignments.
Being a day trader for nearly a decade I have been keeping track of tedious statistics, manually, first on paper in a notebook then eventually in an excel spreadsheet. Early on in the Bootcamp I realized I could use my skills to automate the tedious and very time-consuming tasks that were required of me. Around the 10th week of the bootcamp, I started working on a personal project to utilize for my day trading. I decided I would implement the skills I was learning in class, putting these skills to practical use in real time really ensured I was comprehending everything. By the end of the program I completed my day trading application and currently use it on a day to day basis to help myself make trading decisions. 
I would recommend this bootcamp to anyone that has an interest in learning Python. You can 100% do it through this Bootcamp as it offers you all the support you need to thrive. You have to have the tenacity from within yourself. If you want to further your education there is no better place in my opinion. The support and staff are professional knowledgeable experts in the field with a bleeding passion which is contagious.  I enjoyed the program and would do it all over again. 
My 2 cents:Attend office hours Meet with your tutor weeklyRe-watch all the recordings of the classesTake detailed notesWork on your own passion projectSupport your classmatesAlways remember your "WHY"
If you want to achieve success Arizona State University FinTech Bootcamp is highly suggested.

I have recently completed the bootcamp so I can not give a fair assessment on Job Assistance yet as it is not applicable to me currently. I can say they do offer excellent resources and provide support in preparing for the career hunt!

 

All I can really say is WOW!

Learning Support:
5/5 - There is literally always someone available to answer your questions, you just need to ask. The 24/7 learning team on slack was imperative when I was doing homework assignments, the tutoring with Lucas allowed me to go more in depth on difficult concepts, and then my favorite was definitely the office hours so I could spend time with other students, the professor, and TA to ask questions but also just connect. You will do well, if you first try to solve the problem yourself, if that path doesn't work, ask for help.

Instructor:
10/5 - My professor (3/1/22 - 8/18/22) was the best professor I've ever had in my educational background, his patience, knowledge and positive attitude made the classroom environment super open and allowed the space to ask questions. He would do check-ins probably like 15 times a class at least to see if anyone was struggling.

Career Support:
5/5 - I would STRONGLY urge anyone considering this course to start their career materials/milestones as soon as possible, I started around week 4 or 5 of the 6 month program and I am very glad I did. The bootcamp is most rigorous during the middle two months that is focused on Machine Learning and I felt relief knowing that I was up to date on my resume, linked in, github, etc. and just had to do finishing touches. There is literally too many career resources - in the best way possible. There is at least 1 event every single day Monday - Thursday for networking, learning, recruiting, you name it that you can attend. There are job boards with 250 companies that they partner with. I'm finishing my program today and I know that the career team usually stays with students for 90 days after completion of the course so that you have that cushion of support. AMAZING!

Curriculum:
4/5 - My favorite component of this course was the interactivity and live activities you could work on during class, the only real downside I have was the last week of learning decentralized apps (d'apps), all the activities were done by the instructor so we didn't get to really interact that much and I felt my absorption was not great that week. Other than that HOLY COW I cant believe how fun it was to learn API's, Machine learning, basic data manipulation / exploration, Cryptography and smart contracts. I feel this curriculum is very up to date and prepares you for the workplace. The only other thing is, we spent 1 week on SQL and it just felt very cursory - so many jobs are requesting experience in this so 2 weeks would have been great to focus on it personally.

Things I would change: Honestly, almost nothing. It was the best education of my life - it was stressful, exciting, and amazing. I genuinely wish there was a week long break in the middle of the course, because 6 months straight led to pretty severe burnout by week 23, having a break resets everything. However, I knew going into this it would be rigorous, just a few days off would have made a big difference.

LOVE THIS PROGRAM!

I joined theh ASU FinTech Bootcamp in December of 2021. I had come across this bootcamp while taking classes at ASU, but wasn't able to make time for it. I was very intruiged by the curriculum and liked that it was offered either full-time or part-time. Right away I was being challenged in ways that I couldn't have imagined! The prework set the stage for what was to come, but what we actually learned was beyond what I expected. As my coding skills grew so did my confidence personally and professionally. We were taught at least a half dozen new concepts weekly, and shown websites that enabled us to continue our learning journey. It was a bit overwhelming at first considering I did not have a tech background. With the support and encouragement of the instructors and my tutor I learned how to maneuver amongst cloud-based hosting services and other interactive computing projects with ease. The projects were especially fun because it gave us an opportunity to show off what we had just learned in previous weeks. Finally, I benefited from the live class time with the instructors. It gave me the opportunity to ask plenty of questions in the moment rather than days later. The program also offers additional support in resume writing, interviewing, job search, career coaching and tutoring. I am so proud of my accomplishments! I never imagined I would learn so much in 7 months! I highly recommend the FinTech Bootcamp! It gives people in tech and finance cutting edge information in regards to Web3 and much more that is imperative to their future success.

I took this bootcamp as a career changer with no experience in IT or coding. Spent the last 10 years working as a social worker and wanted to change careers. This bootcamp really helped me to transition to a new IT career. It helped me learn my fundamentals and exposed me to several career paths in cyber open to me with this new knowledge. It is hands-on so I was able to build up my experience in the field as opposed to just reading about it. It was a part time commitment and took about 30 hours a week for 24 weeks to complete. Intense but I was able to keep working full time while doing the bootcamp and still maintained an A+ average. This bootcamp also included access to an in-depth career services program that has helped me with all my career materials and continues to give me career coaching and support 90 days after graduation. Also a Security+ voucher and practice tool so I will be getting an industry certification to go with my certificate of completion that I got for the program itself.

Would recommend this camp for career changers, career starters, or upskillers! There is something for anyone.

I joined the ASU Cybersecurity Bootcamp because I was looking for a career change. I have worked in the Administrative field for many years, and I wanted to do something different, something challenging,  and the ASU Cybersecurity Bootcamp gave that. This is a 24-week part-time program, and by far I can say that it was the best well spent 24 weeks of my life. This is a great introductory program, I learned that if you are serious to get into this field you have to be prepared to dedicate time and practice outside of class and beyond graduation. 
The program gave me many different tools and resources to start my career. The staff, instructor, and TAs were always very supportive, and patient throughout the program. I would highly recommend this program for anyone who is interested to get started in the cybersecurity field and is unsure what path to follow. This program will give you an opportunity to explore different areas, you will have the tools and resources to practice and excel in your career. 
If you successfully complete the course, ASU offers to their graduates a CompTIA Security+ exam voucher. This is another incentive to work hard, put in the time, and invest in your career.

I joined this program with an aim to change my career stream. What I experienced was a well-designed comprehensive course with lots of practical hands-on labs, an awesome instructor and very supportive TAs.  The energy levels in the class was always all-time high and kept me motivated throughout the course duration of this intensive program. 

Dan, as our instructor, is very knowledgeable and his passion in this field as well as for teaching, was reflected in the way he took the classes. He not only taught us topics related to the subject but also shared with us his own experiences of working in the field. He made sure that each and everyone of us understood the concepts and took extra efforts in getting us through the tough areas.

We got an enormous amount of support from the TAs, Dylan and Eric , with getting the necessary information/clarifications, access to course materials and help with lab setups. We were able to cruise through the activity labs and project works, thanks to our awesome TAs.

Overall, it was an great learning journey and probably one of the best learning experiences I have had. 

I am a recent graduate of the cybersecurity boot camp with Arizona State University and initially I was a bit intimidated and scared to begin my journey on this career change but after going through the entire program, I am happy that I took that step to do so. It's a perfect start for someone that is looking to get into the cyber world and while you do have to make sure you put in that extra work, it is all worthwhile. I have been going through interviews for jobs in the cyber field that I never thought I would ever be able to interview for and for anyone thinking about enrolling, I would definitely do it for the knowledge and being able to learn the next steps you'd like to take in life.