CareerFoundry UX Design Bootcamp - My Initial Thoughts After 1 Week

I'm one week into my CareerFoundry UX Design bootcamp. Here's my initial thoughts on how it's been so far.

The beginning of the week felt pretty slow. I think it felt like this because there wasn't a chance to meet my tutor or mentor right away. I had to wait another five days before I could have my first call with my mentor, because that was the first slot he had available. My tutor, I was able to arrange a call with on day three. It definitely would've been better if we were guaranteed a slot to meet our tutor and mentor within the first two days at least. Even better if we could meet them together on a group call, that would've been a nice way to be welcomed right at the start of the programme.

Despite the delay, meeting them both was great. My tutor wasn't even required to have a call with me. Apparently, CareerFoundry recommends that each tutor sends over a short video to introduce themselves, but mine preferred to have a video call, which I appreciated. The call with my mentor was cut short but we discussed everything we needed to discuss so that was fine.

I'm not sure how I feel about the difference between the two roles of tutor and mentor yet. To put it simply, the tutor is responsible for providing feedback on each individual task, whilst the mentor provides detailed feedback on each Achievement (a set group of tasks surrounding a specific topic). Tutor feedback is usually written, whilst mentor feedback is received via video calls, where they are able to screen share and walk you through your submissions. I guess I'll hold off until I've had my first mentor feedback session before commenting on it. Feedback from my tutor though has been very helpful so far.

As for the tasks, I've only completed two in this first week, a competitor analysis and user interviews. The way each lesson is covered is pretty simple. You read through the theory of why and how each step is required in the UX design process. Then some additional recommended reading is provided about the topic. After that, you can start working on the task, which comes with a rubric as well as some examples of previous submissions. The examples are definitely handy as it can be difficult to figure out how to best present the task in a suitable format.

And then there's the Slack community of CareerFoundry students. In all honesty, it's a bit of a hot mess. There's far too many people on there which makes it difficult to really connect with others. Even after joining a private channel with just the UX students from my cohort, it's still too many people. The only way to connect with other students properly would be to direct message people, and that's not very appealing to me as an introvert. There are however a number of useful channels on there, such as portfolio feedback, task help, careers, and a few more. I'll definitely be making use of those as I progress through the programme.

Overall though, I'm really happy with the course so far. With it being self paced, there's a worry that you might end up being overwhelmed by all the work, and then you might fall behind. But there are measures in place to avoid that situation and the tutors and mentors are incredibly supportive. The only thing I'm not liking so far, which I think could be improved, is the networking through Slack.