Ep 4. Are UX Bootcamps Worth It?

UX Bootcamps have become a hot topic in the world of tech, offering a blend of structure, speed, and practical skills designed to fast-track careers. In this episode, I discuss the various advantages and drawbacks of these programs, particularly for teachers looking to change careers. I also provide an overview of a course I took called "Fundamentals of UX Writing" offered by UX Content Collective. I share my personal experiences and highlight how the course's comprehensive curriculum, taught by industry experts, can lead to tangible career benefits.

Check out the UX Content Collective Course: Fundamentals of UX Writing Course: https://uxcontent.com/uxwc-the-fundamentals-course/

• Use discount code UXTPZEE to get 20% off [Full Disclosure: I’m a compensated affiliate for UX Content Collective]

If you're interested in the UX Design Course I took, here it is. Sign up for the SheDesigns Mentorship Program using my discount code: ZEEUXPREP for $75 off your initial payment. [Full Disclosure: I’m a compensated affiliate for SheDesigns]

• Learn more: https://www.shedesigns.org/

Resources:

• Follow us on Linkedin, Instagram, and YouTube for daily updates and tips.
• Grab your free UX transferable skills cheat sheet to get started on your transition journey to UX.
• Ready to find balance and unleash your creativity? Explore uxteacherprep.com to see how we can support you.
• Subscribe to our email list to be the first to receive updates about workshops and networking events.
• Want to be a guest on the show or know someone who’d be a great guest? Sign up here.
• Have ideas for a podcast topic you want to hear next? Email us at hello@uxeacherprep.com.
• Don’t forget to scroll down and leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️review. Thanks for listening!

Chapters

• 0:01 Intro
• 1:02 Defining Bootcamp
• 3:34 Pros of UX Bootcamps
• 7:27 Cons of UX Bootcamps
• 11:52 Things to Consider
• 13:52 Benefits of "Fundamentals of UX Writing" Course

Transcript

Zee: 0:01

UX Bootcamps Are they right for transitioning teachers? Can I benefit from them? Are they even worth it? Should I just consume free content on YouTube or should I go back to school? If you're a teacher who's looking into other careers, you've probably asked yourself and others the same questions, so in today's episode, we'll talk about the pros and cons of UX Bootcamps and short courses.

Narrator: 0:27

Welcome to the UX Teacher Prep Podcast, the ultimate destination for educators who aspire to break into the field of user experience and product design. Your host, z Arnold, a 15-year teacher turned UX researcher, is here to guide, coach and mentor you through every twist and turn as you make your career transition into tech. If you're ready for a more satisfying career and lifestyle and you want the balance to unleash your creativity, this podcast is for you. Now for the show.

Zee: 1:01

Hello teacher friends, Coach Zee, here and today I have a hot topic for you. So in the past two years I've seen an increasing number of people on LinkedIn and other platforms criticizing Bootcamps. I've seen people from traditional backgrounds like psychology, human-computer interaction and computer science say that Bootcamps only scratched the surface and could never replace formal education programs. But I've also seen people graduate from UX Bootcamps in short courses and excel greatly, moving on to successful UX careers, myself included. But before we get into it, it's important to define Bootcamp, because sometimes what one person calls a course, another may call a Bootcamp. The term Bootcamp has gotten a bad rap and I don't think it's as bad as it seems. According to Forbes. com, "a UX-designed Bootcamp is an intensive and immersive education program that equips learners with the foundational knowledge, skills and tools they need to enter the job market. According to educatemecom, tech Bootcamps are high-impact education courses that teach students practical, job-ready tech skills in a short amount of time. So the key to me is short amount of time. So, with that said, today I'll be discussing Bootcamps and short courses on UX. Everyone has an opinion, so here's mine. When I started looking into UX careers, I contemplated going back to school, taking a course, a Bootcamp, or whether YouTube, books and my own research would be enough. After I weighed the pros and cons, I chose Bootcamps and I ended up completing two UX Bootcamps before I got offered two UX positions, one as a senior UX writer and the other as a UX researcher the role I ultimately accepted. My opinion is that as long as you build on the fundamental skills of UX design, which are empathy, critical thinking and problem solving, you can be successful. Having taken only a Bootcamp or UX course. If you have a strong foundation in these skills, which teachers do, you can quickly adapt to the UX field. And if there's one thing teachers know how to do, it's problem solve. I think about how I entered the field of education. I was a teaching fellow. I got my undergrad degree in English, then I joined a non-traditional fellowship program where I was able to teach while earning my master's degree in education and I learned everything I needed to learn and I was very successful as a teacher for 15 years. So back to UX.

Zee: 3:30

Let me get into the pros and cons of UX bootcamps, starting with the pros. The first pro is that you can upskill in a structured setting with a syllabus, and each day and week will be outlined for you. It provides accountability to get stuff done. It's more organized than you reading articles, books and watching YouTube videos on your own when you're in a UX bootcamp. Everything is laid out for you, so you know exactly what to expect from week to week and you know exactly what your assignments are due, the order that you're going to learn each part of the process in, and so you don't have to go to YouTube or articles or books and piece everything together in the proper order to understand what you're doing. And what I like the most about it is that you do have that structured setting and that accountability piece right, because if you have things that are due at a certain date, you have to make sure you get it done, because you've paid for your course and you've invested that time and that money, and so you have to make sure you get it done within a certain amount of time.

Zee: 4:29

So that's number one, and the next one is community. You get to have a community of people who are also learning UX that you can talk to and ask questions and learn with. You also get that mentorship aspect where you can speak to your mentor and collaborate with actual experts in the field. In one of the courses I took, I had a mentor who met with me every week and I was able to ask him any question that I had without feeling creepy about inboxing him on LinkedIn to pick his brain. Let's face it, folks are busy and when you're new to a field, you have so many questions that you want answered. So it's good to have someone in your back pocket, so to speak, that you can talk to at any time if you have a question. He was there when I needed that support and that was because I invested in that UX bootcamp.

Zee: 5:14

Now the third thing is the potential to gain real world experience.

Zee: 5:19

The hands-on experience that you get working with real companies from a bootcamp is something that you won't get if you're just watching YouTube videos or reading books or articles on the topic.

Zee: 5:29

If you go to a UX bootcamp or course and they actually work with real customers and you get that hands-on experience working with products that actually get shipped to the customers, this is going to increase your chance of landing a job in UX and it's also going to help you create your portfolio piece, because whatever project you're working on with that organization, you can make that your portfolio piece and you can share that when you go on your job interviews. So the next pro is the fact that it's an accelerated course, so you get to learn quickly and it forces you to start planning and stop making excuses. So if you want to leave the classroom after June, right, you want this to be your last school year in the classroom. You sign up for a boot camp or a course, you know exactly when it starts and when it finishes and you have no choice but to stop making excuses. Oh, I'm going to do it next school year.

Zee: 6:19

Oh, I'm going to do it in the summer, oh, I'm going to do it. Whenever this happens. Or whenever that happens when you're in this accelerated program, you have to get it done within a certain amount of time. Or they tell you, you know, it's two to six weeks to complete the course. So it gives you that accountability piece again and it's an accelerated program. So now you don't have to say, ok, well, I'm going to go to this grad school program and it's going to take me two years to complete, and then you have two more years that you have to stay in the classroom while you complete this program.

Zee: 6:47

The UX Boot Camp or UX course is accelerated. You can learn quickly, start to apply what you're learning and be able to make the transition quicker than if you were taking a traditional course. And the last pro I want to hit on is the fact that most of these UX Boot Camps and courses are remote, so you have pretty flexible hours. They understand that people are working full time or they have families or they have children. While you're still teaching during the day, you can still do your coursework at night or on the weekends from the comfort of your own home or anywhere in the world. So that remote aspect also gives you that flexibility and that freedom to be able to take the course and get it done. So, to be fair, there are some cons to UX Boot Camps or UX courses. I can turn each con into a pro, but I'm going to give you the cons so that you can be able to weigh the different options and understand the difference between the good and the bad.

Zee: 7:39

So some hiring managers have said that portfolio projects coming out of UX courses and Boot Camps are cookie cutter. Some people go on Behance or Fiverr and have portfolio pieces designed for them and that's not good, because usually they all look the same. You can look them up online and see that they all have the same colors, the same design, the same template, if you will. With UX Boot Camps, you can run into that problem of having your project be a cookie cutter project, meaning everyone did the same project for the same fake company and so people would go online and search other people's projects and basically copy what they did, and so hiring managers are kind of talking about that and how that's problematic. So you have to make your work unique and stand out from the crowd. So before you sign up for a course, first of all check out the reviews, talk to people who have taken the course and look at portfolio pieces online. It's easy to search for a course online and look at the syllabus and see what the name of their project is, so you can go online and see what other people have done with that same project just to make sure your piece doesn't come out just like theirs.

Zee: 8:48

You don't want your portfolio piece looking exactly like someone else's, and that's why I always stress going to programs where you actually get to work with a real company, because every company is different and you'll have a unique portfolio piece to present when it's time for you to go on your job interviews. And the other reason why I really stress working with real companies is because when you're actually in the UX field, you're going to have problems that come up that have to do with real people. And if you're working on a project that's with a fake company, a made-up company, you might have a problem that comes up in your project. That's a manufactured problem. But when you work with real companies, real problems come up. You have a product manager who wants something done differently than what can actually be done with the project and so on and so forth, so you get to talk about constraints that you had while you were working on the project, so it just makes the whole experience more real.

Zee: 9:41

The next con is that prices can be a little outrageous. I've seen UX bootcamps ranging from $875 to over $9,000. And that's ranging from 60 hours to two to six months in total, sometimes even a year, and I get it. The return on investment will be much greater when you land your role and you're making great money. But I also know that not all teachers have that kind of money laying around, so you might need to save up to invest in your professional growth. But some programs do offer discounts at different times of the year and some offer payment plans and scholarships, so you need to look into that as well. I always say invest in yourself. That's the best investment that you can make, but you definitely need to be in a situation where you can make that investment and understand what you're getting for your money.

Zee: 10:31

Another con could be that if an organization is not established, you might be a beta user, meaning you might be the first cohort, of course members in that particular organization. It's not a bad thing, but if you just want to hit the ground running, look for something that's more established, so you know they've worked out all the kinks and everything's up and running, so you don't have to run into those types of issues Again. It's not a bad thing to be a beta user in a new course. In fact, you're giving them feedback and letting them know how everything is working out, and you probably can do it for free or very low cost. But keep in mind that it's just like you go to a supermarket and you're in a rush and then you have that one cashier who's in training and you're just like why me? You know it's something to consider. Everything won't be up and running exactly how they want it to be, but they're asking you to provide feedback as a beta member, and I have heard from some folks who said they've done beta courses and they didn't get as much out of it that they wanted to. So I just wanted to put that on your radar, not to say that beta courses are not good, because everyone has to start from somewhere. And finally, another con is that you're not guaranteed a job when you finish a bootcamp or an online course, but honestly, the same thing goes for a traditional degree program. No matter which path you take, you get out what you put in. You're still going to have to do the work to market yourself, network and get your resume and your voice in front of the right people.

Zee: 11:52

So, with that said, here's some things you need to consider when deciding whether to take a UX bootcamp or UX course or not. First of all, do your research. Go online, ask people, figure out if this course is right for you or if you even need to take a course. Also, consider the affordability. Compare prices. Start to save now if you need to to be able to invest in yourself and your future. Think about the course's reputation. Ask around, ask specifically teachers who've taken the course and get the syllabus so you can see exactly what to expect in the course for the money that you paid, or the money you didn't pay if you're a beta user, for example.

Zee: 12:33

I always say ask teachers who've taken the course, because the experience is going to be different for teachers versus non-teachers and you really want to make sure that you can be able to go to the course and still tap into your transferable skills as a teacher and learn how everything that you're learning in the course relates to teaching, so you can explain that in your job interviews, so you can be able to translate that in your resume. So talking to teachers who've gone through those courses and those boot camps will be your best bet in terms of learning more about the course. And you can find teachers on LinkedIn who've taken the course that you're interested in by searching the course and then searching people, and that's how you can connect to those folks. If possible, try to find a course that allows you to collaborate with other human beings and work on real projects with real people. That's where you're going to get the most bang for your buck. And finally, if you want to specialize, let's say, in UX research or accessibility, look to see if the program has specific training and lessons tailored to that specialty before you invest in it. I would hate for you to sit through an entire program only to find out it was very general and it didn't focus on an area that you wanted to specialize in. Make sure you download the syllabus ahead of time so you can see exactly what you'll be getting into and make an informed decision.

Zee: 13:52

I want to share briefly about a course I took because it was amazing and I know that my experience was so great because I did my research and chose the best courses out there for what I wanted to learn. It's from the UX Content Collective, and the course is called Fundamentals of UX Writing. So when I first discovered UX, I wanted to focus on UX Writing because I found it so fascinating, especially coming from being an English teacher, and I talked about that in my very first episode of YLF Teaching. So there's going to be a link to the course in the show notes and description section below. And, just so you know, I'm an affiliate for the UX Content Collective, so I do earn a commission if you purchase the course using my affiliate discount code, uxtp-zee, which will earn you 20% off the price of the course, and that's huge. So I'm sharing this course with you because it was so beneficial when I wanted to learn the ins and outs of UX Writing, and I know that it's going to help you too.

Zee: 14:46

So here are some of the benefits of the course you can learn everything you need to become a UX writer within four to six weeks. It took me five weeks to complete my course and you learn from experts that work at Google, amazon, meta, vogue, intuit, and everything is online and is self-paced, so you can take breaks as you need to, or you can speed yourself up if you feel like you need to do that as well. They have more than 30 instructional videos and you get personal feedback on your work from their expert mentors, so they're actually going in and grading your assignments as you go through the program. Also, you get a UX Writing certification that you can show off on your LinkedIn page and show off on your resume. You also get to learn how to use Figma, which is the most popular design tool out there, and now they've even upgraded the course to include AI tools, which is super exciting because they're moving with the times.

Zee: 15:37

You also get access to a Slack community to talk to other students about the work that you're doing, which is great, because sometimes you know off hours. You just want to talk to someone and say hey, you know, I had this question about this part of the course and this chapter or this lesson I wasn't sure about, and you can get feedback right away from your classmates. And now they're also giving out a personalized portfolio page with your own URL that you can use to share your portfolio piece, which I think is amazing. And then, even after you finish the course you still have lifetime access, including any future updates that they do, and I'm excited about going back and seeing some of the AI tool updates they've recently done, because I haven't even seen those parts yet. And now they have this member directory and you can be a part of their certified UX writers directory so people can look you up and see your certification, which I think is super cool.

Zee: 16:25

So, although I'm not currently a UX writer by title, I count it as a success because after I finished the course and my project was graded and edited, I was able to use it as a portfolio piece and the skills I learned helped me master the take home challenge. That was part of my interview process and because of that, I was offered a senior UX writer position at a major EdTech company. But I ended up taking a UX research position at another company because it was better aligned to my vision and my work life balance. But guess what? I still use the skills I learned in that UX writing course to help me in my UX research role when I work on projects that are testing content and UX writing. For example, we were trying out a new prototype with teachers and we wanted to see if the language we planned to use in two different parts of the site would connect well with educators. Even before we started testing, I gave the product team some feedback on their ideas, and I was able to do that because I knew the principles and optimal approaches to UX writing. So we were able to put our best designs in front of users, and that was because of that fundamentals of UX writing course that I took.

Zee: 17:32

So at the end of the day, whether or not you choose a UX bootcamp is all going to come down to your finances, your circumstances, your learning preference and your individual situation. A bootcamp or a course might be great for you and not for someone else, and vice versa. I hope you have a better understanding of the pros and cons so you can make an informed decision about your future. And if you're interested in the fundamentals of UX writing course, visit the site linked below to review the syllabus and see if it's a right fit for you. And you can use my code UXTPZEE or 20% off. And if you're looking for clarity on your next career move, don't hesitate to book a coaching call with me at uxtejorprepcom. Thank you so much for listening and we'll talk next week.

Narrator: 18:21

Hey, thanks so much for tuning in. If you liked this podcast, hit, follow and scroll down to leave a five star rating. Then share it with a friend. If you're looking for resources to help you on your tech transition journey, head over to uxtejorprepcom. Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram at uxtejorprep for daily tips and motivation. Have a topic you'd like to hear addressed on the show? Send us a DM on Instagram. If you're listening on YouTube, like, subscribe and share. Until next time, be well.