CareerFoundry Reviews

If you are looking to become a web designer, data analyst, web developer, digital marketer, or product manager, then attending a CareerFoundry course might be your next step. As many CareerFoundry reviews and testimonials suggest, this online school’s flexible programs are backed by supportive industry professionals who are determined to get you hired. 

Any time you have a big decision to make about your future, you need all the information you can get. That’s why we’ve put together this handy CareerFoundry review to help you decide whether this online bootcamp is for you. Our guide will cover how much programs at CareerFoundry cost, what they consist of, and how they can get you hired.

What Is CareerFoundry?

CareerFoundry is a coding bootcamp that offers online technical training programs in UX/UI design, web development, data analysis, digital marketing, and product management. Each CareerFoundry bootcamp program is self-paced and is designed to get you job-ready in three to six months, depending on your time commitment. Moreover, they come with a job guarantee, which is the best way to ensure you get a job after coding bootcamp.

CareerFoundry also offers several introductory courses for complete beginners and advanced courses for professionals who want to broaden or deepen their skillsets. CareerFoundry students come from all walks of life, and alumni have gone on to work at companies like Google, Apple, Amazon, Volkswagon, PayPal, and Netflix.

CareerFoundry Reviews: Is CareerFoundry Worth It?

Yes, CareerFoundry is worth it for anyone looking for an entry-level job in web development, product design, or data analysis. CareerFoundry is a great alternative to a traditional college degree. According to student reviews of CareerFoundry, its bootcamps are flexible, affordable, and run by a supportive team of mentors and industry experts.

However, if you review CareerFoundry’s offerings, you may find it wanting in certain respects. For example, there is no software engineering or cyber security program at CareerFoundry. If you’re interested in one of these subjects, you should check out the bootcamp offerings at Flatiron School, Coding Dojo, Kenzie Academy, Thinkful, and General Assembly.

Best known for its UX and UI design bootcamps, CareerFoundry has recently reached into other corners of the tech industry, including digital marketing and product management. While fewer CareerFoundry reviews have been written for these newer courses, they follow the same model of flexibility, industry-led and project-based coursework, and one-on-one mentorship.

How Much Does CareerFoundry Cost?

The cost of CareerFoundry ranges from $690 for introductory courses to $8,500 for the most expensive immersive program. The vast majority of CareerFoundry’s bootcamps cost $7,900, but it’s important to keep in mind that this price tag represents the total cost for students who choose to pay in installments. If you pay upfront, you get a 10 percent tuition discount.

All things considered, your CareerFoundry price varies by course, course type, and payment method. The advanced courses, at $1,900 upfront or $2,000 in installments, are a nice middle ground between the intro courses and the immersive bootcamps. To learn more about how much CareerFoundry costs out of pocket, read our next section on payment methods.

How to Pay for CareerFoundry

There are several ways to pay for CareerFoundry courses. They include upfront payment plans, loan financing, and monthly agreements. You can contact the school’s admissions team to find a CareerFoundry payment plan that’s suitable for you.

Scholarships

At the time of writing, there are no CareerFoundry scholarships. In the past, however, CareerFoundry offered a few scholarships to applicants from groups underrepresented in the tech industry. In lieu of scholarships, CareerFoundry keeps its courses affordable, offers a job guarantee for its immersive programs, and provides access to payment plans.

ISAs

CareerFoundry does not offer income share agreements (ISAs). An ISA is a form of deferred tuition, popular among bootcamps, whereby students can wait to pay their tuition until after they’ve secured a job. Even though ISAs aren’t an option at CareerFoundry, some students are eligible to get their tuition refunded if they fail to get a job.

Loan Financing

Financing for CareerFoundry courses extends to loans. Loan financing is a great option for those who cannot afford the upfront tuition rates and are looking to pay back in installments. This payment option involves partnering with the lending institution Ascent Funding, which then assists students with the CareerFoundry financing process.

You will have to pass a credit check to be eligible for an Ascent Funding loan. Ascent Funding offers three repayment plans to all CareerFoundry students. They include beginning payments one month before starting the courses, paying low interest during the program, or deferring paying until after graduation and until you get a job.

The payment deferral option comes with higher interest rates compared to the other two repayment plans. Make sure to consult with the admissions team to find out how to pay for CareerFoundry with a loan, and to decide which loan financing option is best for you.

Monthly Installments

The most popular CareerFoundry payment option is a month-to-month installment payment plan. The school allows students to complete their monthly installments 10 months from the date of enrollment. The terms of your installment plan depend on your course, but a typical plan requires you to pay a deposit of $1,400 and then $650 monthly for 10 months.

GI Bill

While many coding bootcamps cater to veterans and make themselves eligible for the GI Bill, CareerFoundry does not accept GI Bill benefits. This means that if you are a military veteran, a veteran’s spouse, or on active duty, you will need to look elsewhere to use your education benefits. 

Upfront Payment

If you can afford the entire program tuition upfront, then you qualify for a CareerFoundry discount of 10 percent. This means that you can get a $7,900 bootcamp for $7,110 or an $8,500 bootcamp for $7,650. Additionally, a CareerFoundry discount of five percent applies to the advanced courses, meaning they cost $1,900 instead of $2,000 when you pay upfront.

CareerFoundry Job Placement

CareerFoundry reports that its average graduate secures a well-paying job within 75 days of graduating. CareerFoundry’s job placement rate is competitive with that of other bootcamps, and it is partly due to the school’s comprehensive career support services. The career coaches work with each student to come up with a personalized job training and job search strategy.

They include resume critique, interview prep, and hands-on training on in-demand skills. CareerFoundry further reports that graduates receive a $15,082 average pay raise from their previous jobs, with many of these increases falling between $10,000 and $20,000.

Does CareerFoundry Offer a Job Guarantee?

Yes, CareerFoundry does offer a job guarantee for its bootcamp programs. To qualify for the CareerFoundry job guarantee, however, you need to complete the entire program, apply for a minimum of five jobs per week after graduation, and live in a metropolitan area with a population of over 200,000.

If you meet all of these requirements, the terms of CareerFoundry’s job guarantee state that you will get a full tuition refund if you fail to get a job within six months of graduation. Many bootcamp applicants worry that job guarantees are too good to be true, so make sure you  carefully review CareerFoundry’s job guarantee stipulations before signing on.

CareerFoundry Locations

CareerFoundry’s headquarters are in Berlin, Germany, but its courses are located everywhere that has Internet access. As an online coding bootcamp, CareerFoundry offers truly global services. Its mentors, career counselors, and students come from every continent. Here is a quick breakdown of CareerFoundry graduates by location:

• United States – 52%
• Europe – 29%
• United Kingdom – 7%
• Asia – 4.5%
• Canada – 3%
• Australia – 2%
• South America – 0.8%
• South Africa – 0.75%

CareerFoundry Courses

CareerFoundry offers plenty of part-time courses to prepare students for a career in UX design, UI design, web development, data analytics, digital marketing, or product management. The programs are beginner-friendly and project-focused.

The school offers short-term introductory and advanced courses in various subjects, as well as long-term courses designed to change your career. Let’s take a look at CareerFoundry’s course catalog in greater detail.

CareerFoundry Introductory Courses

If you are new to coding and tech in general, it is a good idea to learn the basics before jumping into advanced programs. To further aid your learning process, CareerFoundry offers introductory prep courses for all of its programs. All introductory courses cost $690, and you can choose the payment plan that suits you best.

1. Intro to UX Design – This introductory course on user experience design will teach you UX essentials within a month. You will learn the UX design process, principles, user-centered design, information architecture, and design thinking. You will also design an application focusing on UX design.
2. Intro to UI Design – The UI design introductory course covers fundamental UI design principles also within a month. The course covers how to use typography, color, and imagery to enhance the user interface. You will also use pixel precision and visual hierarchy to design your own application.
3. Intro to Front End Development – This introductory course is perfect for those wanting to gain foundational knowledge of front end development. The course covers HTML, CSS, responsive building, and debugging. You will work one-on-one with a mentor to develop a functional website from scratch.
4. Intro to Data Analytics – This is a month-long course that teaches basic data science subjects. They include the data analysis process and descriptive, diagnostic, and predictive analytical approaches. You will also learn how to analyze data to find optimal business solutions and intelligence.
5. Intro to Digital Marketing. In one month, students will learn the fundamentals of branding, research, strategy, and campaigns. The time commitment is just 15 to 20 hours per week, and your hard work will culminate in a real-world social media marketing campaign, which you will hand in as your final project. 
6. Intro to Product Management. This course simulates what it’s like to be in charge of a product roadmap and to spearhead the communication strategy for a product’s release. Each student receives individual attention from two specialists, a tutor and a mentor, on their way to working on an actual product for their professional portfolio. 

CareerFoundry Advanced Courses

If you’re looking for a deep dive into a specialized topic, CareerFoundry offers six advanced courses to help you fill gaps in your skillset. Each advanced course at CareerFoundry costs $1,900 upfront and will take two months to complete if you study for 15 to 20 hours per week. To review CareerFoundry’s list of advanced offerings, read our brief summaries below.

1. Voice User Interface Design. Rather than the visual interfaces that users encounter on web pages, this course focuses on the sound-based interfaces of virtual assistants. Using the Alexa Skills Kit, students learn how to design voice-activated, hands-free experiences for Amazon Alexa. 
2. UI for UX Designer. User experience gets a lot more attention in the design space, which can lead to an underemphasis on user interface skills. This course aims to correct the imbalance by teaching UX designers all about typography, colors, visual hierarchies, responsive layouts, and more. The final project takes students from design to handoff. 
3. Frontend Development for Designers. Structured around a project that lets students build a website from scratch, this advanced course covers HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Once equipped with these coding skills, the visual designers who complete the course will have a better understanding of the developer’s role in the design process.
4. UI Animation for Designers. If your knowledge of user interface design is limited to static elements, this course is for you. Dynamic animations are often the key to user engagement, and building them is relatively simple if you have the right tools. Students in this course use Adobe After Effects to build powerful animations from start to finish. 
5. Python for Web Developers. Although Python isn’t the first language that comes to mind for web development, you should learn Python if you want to be a more versatile developer. The course starts with the fundamentals of coding in Python before moving on to the Django framework and how Python programmers can use it to build websites. 
6. Cloud Computing for Web Devs. This advanced CareerFoundry course gives web developers hands-on experience in Amazon Web Services, the largest cloud infrastructure service provider in the world according to Statista. After learning the basics of storage and VPCs, students deploy their very own apps in the cloud. 

UX Design

The UX design course at CareerFoundry costs $7,900 and is a 10-month design training course that prepares you to become a UX designer. The course covers all the essential UX design tools and principles. They include usability testing, end-to-end design, and three specialization options for the final module.

You can choose to specialize in UI for UX designers, front end development for designers, or voice user interface design. Reviews of CareerFoundry’s UX program indicate that it is ideal for someone with only a basic understanding of UX design. This is because, even though the course is self-paced, students receive personalized help and feedback from industry experts.

The UX design program provides you with a career counseling mentor and offers plenty of hands-on experiences that allow you to build an impressive portfolio. If you don’t have a background in UX design, you can take CareerFoundry’s introductory course to prepare.

UI Design

CareerFoundry’s user interface design program trains you to become a UI designer in nine months or less. The course is offered online and provides a flexible schedule that is perfect for full-time employees looking to learn UI design.

You will learn UI design processes, mobile app design for Android and iOS, animation, branding, and UI skills required to succeed in the industry. As with the UX design program, you will have the regular guidance of an industry professional. One former student who reviewed CareerFoundry’s UI design program said that his mentor went “the extra mile” for him.

The program’s final module offers two complementary learning options. You can either choose to learn voice user interface design or front end development for designers.

Full Stack Web Development

CareerFoundry’s full stack developer program trains you for an entry-level career in web development in under seven months. You will learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript basics, server-side programming, Node.js, client-side programming, and React. The course also covers test-driven development processes, native app development, React Native, and Angular.

The course offers ample project options, and you will develop a website and work on projects that cover full stack web development. The best part is that an industry expert will be there to review your CareerFoundry web development project and offer feedback on your portfolio. This program is ideal if you want to learn both front end and backend web development.

Data Analytics

The data analytics program is best suited for those wanting to become data analysts. The course will teach you critical skills needed for data analysis with regard to the business sector and data immersion. You will also learn data interpretation, data visualization, storytelling, databases, and SQL.

The course also covers Python for data analysis, dashboards, data mining, and ethical data usage. Alumni reviews of CareerFoundry’s data analytics program suggest that those completely new to the field may feel overwhelmed. If you’re worried about this, you should enroll in CareerFoundry’s free short course on data analytics.

Digital Marketing

This immersive program prepares students for a career in digital marketing at their own pace. Studying full-time, you can complete the program in as little as three months. If you only have 15 to 20 hours per week to spare, it will take you six or seven months to complete.

The curriculum covers all the in-demand digital marketing skills you need to succeed. Using industry-standard digital marketing tools, students thoroughly master content marketing, social media marketing, performance marketing, and analytics. At the end of the program, an industry expert hired by CareerFoundry reviews your portfolio project and gives you feedback.

Product Management

One of CareerFoundry’s newest programs, the immersive product management course aims to capitalize on the recent rise in demand for product managers by helping students acquire the skills they need to enter the profession. In less than six months, you can learn the ins and outs of the trade alongside industry experts and attentive career advisors. 

The curriculum takes students through every stage of the product development pipeline, from concept to launch. You start by learning crucial management skills, such as creating a budget, setting deadlines, and writing a Product Requirements Document (PRD). You then learn how to conduct research, generate ideas, make a prototype, and align stakeholders.

How to Get Accepted Into CareerFoundry

To get accepted into CareerFoundry, you must be passionate about tech and pass the admissions interview. The entire admissions process is online, and you can take the school’s free introductory courses to determine if the subject and the school are for you.

CareerFoundry Acceptance Rate

The CareerFoundry acceptance rate is not public. That being said, the school’s courses are accessible for beginners, and even without previous experience, you should have no problem getting into the program of your choice. The only admission criteria are a willingness to succeed, an interest in the subject matter, basic English skills, and computer literacy.

Application Process

The application process for CareerFoundry is relatively simple. All you need to do is complete an online application and participate in a phone interview with the school’s advisor.

1. The first step to getting into CareerFoundry is filling out an online application and choosing the program that you want to study.
2. Once CareerFoundry reviews your application and you are selected, you will receive a phone call from the school’s admissions counselor. You will get more information regarding the program and have a short phone interview. You will also discuss the different payment plans and find the one that suits you best.
3. If you pass the interview, the school will offer you admission into the program.

Interview Questions

CareeFoundry’s interview questions are simple and aim to learn about your passion for tech and your reasons behind applying for the bootcamp. Below are some questions your CareerFoundry interview might cover.

• Why are you interested in the program you applied for?
• What is your background in the program’s subject?
• What are your career goals, and what do you hope to achieve from our program?
• How do you plan to pay for the program, and which financing options work best for you?

What Is the CareerFoundry Schedule?

CareerFoundry offers all its classes online. They are designed to be completed at each student’s own pace. Read below to learn more about the different schedule options you can choose.

Self-Paced

CareerFoundry’s self-paced and flexible courses are perfect for those with uncertain schedules. You get all of the curriculum material at the start of the program and are given a set amount of time to complete it. As long as you finish within the allotted time, you can commit as much or as little time per week as you’d like.

Part-Time

CareerFoundry recommends a part-time schedule for all of its self-paced courses. By committing 15 to 20 hours per week, you should be able to finish within seven to 10 months. This is ideal for any busy person with full-time university classes or a full-time job.

Full-Time

Because all of the courses are self-paced, you can also take on a full-time schedule. Studying for 30 to 40 hours per week makes it possible to complete a CareerFoundry bootcamp program in as little as three months, which you should do if you have the time to spare.

Is CareerFoundry Right for You?

Yes, CareerFoundry is right for everyone looking to get ready for an entry-level position in data analytics, UX design, UI design, and web development. Reviews of CareerFoundry and its job guarantee paint a picture of a school that’s perfect for anyone looking to secure a lucrative job right after graduation with help from tutors, mentors, and student advisors.

In addition, CareerFoundry offers plenty of payment options and flexible courses to accommodate different schedules and financial situations. Today, CareerFoundry graduates work as researchers, consultants, web developers, and product designers at top companies. You can land your dream tech job by attending CareerFoundry.

CareerFoundry Reviews FAQ

Is CareerFoundry legit?

Yes, CareerFoundry is a legitimate place to get a coding education for a tech career. While the school is not accredited in the traditional sense, its courses have been known to raise graduates’ salaries and improve their job prospects. CareerFoundry is reputable enough that well-known companies like Google, PayPal, Netflix, and Amazon have hired its graduates.

Does CareerFoundry have a refund policy?

Yes, CareerFoundry issues tuition refunds in a few cases. The most routine CareerFoundry refund is reserved for students who decide to exit the program within the first 14 days of classes. CareerFoundry’s job guarantee also comes with the promise of a refund, which eligible students receive if they are unable to find work within six months of graduation.

How much do CareerFoundry graduates earn?

According to the school’s own data, the average CareerFoundry graduate earns $15,082 more than when they entered their program. This suggests that a majority of CareerFoundry grads become competitive candidates for web development and design jobs. PayScale estimates that the average salary across the web development industry is $70,000.

Which companies hire CareerFoundry graduates?

All sorts of companies hire CareerFoundry graduates, from tech giants like Apple and Google to financial service providers like Visa and Bank of America. The wide range of CareerFoundry’s courses lays open a high number of viable job titles to CareerFoundry graduates, whom companies hire to work as web developers, UX/UI designers, product managers, and more.