Mentoring on Springboard

By | July 8, 2020

Earlier this year, I started working with Springboard as a Software Engineering Mentor. Springboard, for those who don’t know is an online learning platform that offers courses in a number of areas such as: UI Design, Data Science and of course Software Engineering.

I was drawn to Springboard because I liked their overall approach to teaching students, and the fact that they partner with students to help them find work when they complete the program.

Springboard Software Engineering Prep Course

Springboard offers 2 Software Engineering course options.

The first course is called the Software Engineering Career Track Prep program. The Prep program is designed to be a short 4-6 week introduction to software development. It covers basic concepts and uses JavaScript and Web development examples to help students dip their toes into writing software. For those folks who are interested in software and have never tried it this is a great way to find out if it is for you.

The Prep program starts very simple and builds on each lesson so that at the conclusion, you can create web pages and implement some basic dynamic functionality in JavaScript. At the conclusion there is a test that helps measure your progress and aptitude.

I have mentored a few dozen students through the Prep program. Almost all of the students I’ve worked with have enjoyed the course and found it really rewarding. There have been a few who learned that software is not something they understand and/or enjoy – and that is OK too. Writing software is not for everyone. It is much better to find out software is not the career for you after a small time and financial investment vs spending thousands of dollars or years of time only to realize you hate it.

Springboard Full Software Engineering Career Track

The second offering Springboard has for Software Engineering is the full Software Engineering Career Track. This is a much longer course meant to be completed over about 10 months.

Like the Prep program the full course starts out simple but quickly builds upon each lesson. After the first few weeks each student will be designing complete fully working web applications. Around the end of the first month, students will have built out a substantial web application that works well and mirrors a popular web site’s functionality.

Most students who complete the Prep program want to move on to the full Career Track and I encourage them to do so. Springboard has some flexible programs to make the course affordable and they really do care that you succeed. That is what drew me to work with them – the genuine desire and structure to ensure every student is successful.

Springboard is not just another code boot camp that’s a money grab operation. They are the real deal – they actually care about your success and they are offering a great program to teach you how to develop quality software.

Learn More about Springboard

Are you are interested in writing software as a career? If so it is well worth the time and financial investment to try a Springboard course.

Check out their programs at Springboard.com

If you are interested in becoming a mentor at Springboardclick here to learn more about their programs and how it works.