Are Data Science Bootcamps worth it?
I am a huge fan of online learning, have been for a long time. As of today, I have probably successfully completed over 200 online courses and more than 25 specializations, most of them on Data Science and Technology. I also understand the value of traditional, in person education having finished 2 university master’s degrees (both in psychology). Most of all, I believe that you should never stop learning, both because it is always beneficial and because knowledge is not static and keeps changing.
Since at this point of my life I am mostly focused on Data Science and Machine Learning, I talk a lot with many people through social media (always feel free to chat with me on LinkedIN) about learning Data Science, and a constant question has always been: Are Data Science Bootcamps worth it?
Truth be told, I had no idea, since I had never participated in one. Turns out, a few months ago, I had the chance to do a full time Data Science bootcamp, and I took it. I now have an opinion about them and that is what this article is all about.
SPOILER: It was NOT a very good experience, but it did give me some general insights on the overall bootcamp industry and methodology. Keep reading if you want to enjoy a combination of rant and tips for all of you starting to learn Data Science.
Before I start, I must admit I struggled a lot deciding if I should mention the bootcamp provider, since, at least for me, they provided a subpar experience, and were also deaf to the desperate pleas of the students regarding the lack of instruction quality. Also, because it will, one way or another, bring attention to them, and as PT Barnum would put it: “There is no such thing as bad publicity”.
Nonetheless, after a lot of thought, I decided to mention the company, at least to push them to try harder and to help people avoid spending a huge amount of money on a deficient service.
Here we go…
A few months back, I had the chance to enroll in the Full Time Data Science Bootcamp offered by Coding Dojo (not to be confused with Data Science Dojo). They offered a comprehensive curriculum, from Programming to Deep Learning, including statistics, data modeling and all the python tools you need in Data Science. The curriculum was, supposedly, created by Isaac Faber Ph.D., who has an incredible profile. Also, the offered instructor was Daniel Oostra, again, a Data Scientist with an amazing background.
The bootcamp would be 14 weeks, with classes every weekday morning and projects every afternoon. All for the not so affordable price tag or $13,000.
INSIGHT 1: Can you learn Data Science in 14 weeks full time? Honestly, probably not. You can learn some of the basics and techniques, but the nuances of working with data, comprehending the mathematics (at least statistics and probability) and feeling comfortable working with data and building models, will take quite longer and a lot of actual working with data.
INSIGHT 2: Is $13,000 a good price for learning the fundamentals of Data Science? This is a tricky question since it depends. If you are learning Data Science from someone like Andrew Ng, Caitlin Smallwood or Chris Mattman and you have them available anytime for 14 weeks, then it’s a bargain. If you are learning from the guy who just finished watching a 2 minute video on Data Science, that you’re paying $13,000 too much.
My objectives for the bootcamp were simple: Have the bootcamp experience so I can have an informed opinion and know if I could/should recommend them and learning a couple of new skills in the process. The curriculum also included some R programming for Data Science so that was my main goal.
The bootcamp was zoom based, since we are still in the middle of a pandemic, but still, I was giddy and excited to get back to a structured learning classroom with actual classmates and an actual teacher.
My excitement lasted all of 5 minutes.
On the first day, we get the sudden news that our instructor was changed. Never got an explanation about it. The new instructor, whose name I will keep hidden so as not to cause him any harm, was, let’s say this in the best possible light: underwhelming.
He had very little experience as a Data Analyst, no experience as a Data Scientist and absolutely no skill and experience teaching, much less teaching online.
INSIGHT 3: If you do take any bootcamp, make sure there is a contract with the name and resume of the instructor, and a guarantee that it will be this instructor who will lead the course, or you get your money back.
Also, the curriculum was completely altered, even though the company mentioned repeatedly that it was then same but reorganized (it was not). Now we were just focusing on tools, mostly for data analysis, like Excel, Tableau and Power BI. Some SQL, some R, some Python and some Machine Learning (with absolutely no math).
INSIGHT 4: Same as above. Make sure the whole curriculum is in the contract and that it cannot be changed unless previously agreed with you, or your money back.
The classes were subpar at best, the instructor was only able to answer very basic questions and had the terrible tick of asking if we had questions every other sentence. The difficult questions were left unanswered, with a simple ‘let me get back to you’ which never happened.
For a moment, I thought the problem was me, maybe the instructor was just teaching stuff that I found too basic and was avoiding more complex stuff as to not confuse students. Well, after a group of 11 out of 17 students brought up the same issue, I was reassured that my perceptions of the instruction were correct.
To make matters worse, the whole “state of the art” learning platform they offered, was literally filled with free and open resources, most of them very old and outdated, and a lot of Kaggle. Now, don’t get me wrong, Kaggle is great, but paying for a bootcamp that consistently sends you to free Kaggle courses is literally giving your money away.
INSIGHT 5: Make sure you get at least a tour of the platform and resources you will be using. Having some free resources, like Kaggle, is more than fine, but if more that 30% of the resources are free and open, look for another bootcamp provider.
Me and other people in the bootcamp tried to bring up the issues with the providers, all we got was excuses and very dishonest arguments from them. Even the VP of Instruction for the company, kept defending their choice of instructor till the very end. Also interesting, that they fired the instructor after the last day of the bootcamp. So apart from having a bad experience from beginning to end on the instruction and platform side, the company never took responsibility. I did find some humor in the fact that the VP of instruction, in his email signature, had a Ted Talk about the importance of 0% excuses and 100% responsibility, but I guess the irony was lost on him.
INSIGHT 6: Make sure that the support staff is there for you, to help you achieve your goals, at the end of the day you are paying them to help you learn in the best possible way for you.
The other great part of learning in a bootcamp are the code and project reviews, which we never had any of them, and feedback on project presentations, all we got was either “good job” or “you need to add more stuff to your readme file.”
INSIGHT 7: Make sure you are getting constant feedback on EVERYTHING you do during the bootcamp. If you take the time to do an assignment or build a project, the instruction team should be there to give you quality feedback.
At the end, I did learn some R programming (and became infatuated with the whole #Tidy suit of tools, especially ggplot2), but not in the actual bootcamp, I did it because there are amazing free resources like the R Programming course from Freecodecamp.org (check it out here: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/r-programming-course/). Also, I got to experience a bootcamp, albeit a disappointing one, but it did give me an idea of what a good Data Science bootcamp should look like.
The dismaying ending to the experience is that, for the first time in my life, I finished a learning journey without any sense of accomplishment, on the contrary, I feel like a big part of the 14 weeks was wasted. As for the “Certificate of Accomplishment” given to me, I will just file it under disappointments and soon forget about it.
Are Data Science bootcamps worth the time and money?
It all depends. If you have a good instructor, a good program, a good platform, and a good and supportive team behind you, they can be a very good way to start. Just make sure you get into the right one, you get everything in writing, including refund policies and, most of all, avoid the Coding Dojo Data Science Bootcamp.
Still, if you are an organized and self-motivated person, I would suggest you use all the incredible free resources you can find online, from Khan Academy, to freecodecamp.org, as well as the amazing content creators in YouTube like Statquest with Joe Stramer, Ken Jee, 3 Blue 1 Brown and many others. Look for someone who is willing to mentor and guide you along and join communities like #66DaysOfData who will give you support and motivation. You can get all of this for the incredible deal of $0 and get as much or more than a bootcamp can offer.
Drop me a note on Twitter or LinkedIN if you would be interested in my take of what a good and high end Data Science Bootcamp should look like.
Jack Raifer Baruch
Follow me on Twitter: @JackRaifer
Follow me on LinkedIN: jackraifer
