Chart Your Course: Which General Assembly Class Is Right for You?

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Whether you’re making the leap into a career change, or leveling up your current skill set to land that next promotion, you might be wondering if an online coding bootcamp is right for you. The good news is that General Assembly offers a range of beginner-friendly class formats (from full-time immersives to flexible, part-time schedules), and we have a course that will fit your specific career path and interests. 

Today’s economy demands a nimble, always evolving technical skillset if you want to land and thrive in a role in in-demand fields like software engineering, UX design, data analytics, and data science. An up-to-date curriculum based on real-world job skills is critical for a bootcamp to equip you with the knowledge you need to succeed. At General Assembly, we update our courses multiple times each year to reflect the job market reality and ensure our instructors have extensive professional experience in the subjects they teach. 

If you want to break into tech, advance your current skills, or learn new skills that will help you bring your next business idea to life, let’s go through some questions to help you select the bootcamp that’s right for you. 

Are you changing careers, or looking to advance at work? 

Often, General Assembly students are looking to switch careers entirely by breaking into the tech industry for better pay, a more fulfilling role, and work-life balance. Many have little to no technical experience, with backgrounds as varied as hospitality and customer service. Others are working in tech already, but want to upskill so they can accelerate their career growth—like data analysts who want to become data scientists. Others still are entrepreneurs who run their own businesses or plan to one day, and could benefit from skills like coding and digital marketing. 

If you’re breaking into a new field entirely, one of our full-time immersives can help you dive deep into your chosen subject over just 12 weeks. We offer full-time courses in data analytics, data science, digital marketing, software engineering, and UX design. These courses are a great option if you are ready to leave your current job and fully commit to a new direction. 

If you need more flexibility, or are looking to apply new skills to your current role, a part-time program could be right for you. In addition to full-time immersives, we offer 24-week Flex Immersives that accommodate work and life for those looking to study software engineering or UX design. We also offer part-time courses that allow you to learn at a slower pace, including front-end web development, JavaScript, product management, Python programming, React development, and visual design. 

If you’re not sure whether you’re a career changer or an upskiller, one of our free intro-to courses could be a great first step. These workshops provide more in-depth overviews of our programs that could help you make a decision. 

What do you want to study? 

Investing in one of our immersive courses is a big step, so making sure you’ve picked the right topic to focus on is important to maximizing your investment and setting your career in the right direction. You might know, for example, that you want to break into the tech industry but feel torn between software engineering and UX design. 

While General Assembly offers beginner-friendly courses, many students find value in self-study prior to enrolling in the full financial and time commitment required of one of our courses. If this sounds like you, we offer free resources to help you dive in on your own and test your interests, such as our introductory sessions and Dash, a self-serve coding course that teaches basic HTML, CSS and some JavaScript. 

A phone call with our admissions team can also help you clarify your career path before formally applying to General Assembly. During the call, we’ll get a sense of your background, interests, and goals. Then, your advisor will work with you to determine what your career path is, and what the corresponding course is. 

If you decide to move forward, you’ll participate in an admissions interview task where you’ll explore a new topic in a short, three- to four-day project. For example, applicants to our UX Design Immersive might conduct user research for a hypothetical company by tapping their own network of friends, family or social media connections. 

General Assembly Course Offerings

Now that you’ve answered some key questions, here’s an overview of our course offerings to help you decide which one to enroll in. 

Ready to get started? Chart your course today by speaking with one of our admissions producers to receive tailored career advice.

Disclaimer: General Assembly referred to their Bootcamps and Short Courses as “Immersive” and “Part-time” courses respectfully and you may see that reference in posts prior to 2023.