A review of Pragmatic Institute as a tech bootcamp

A review of Pragmatic Institute as a tech bootcamp

Updated in 2023

What does Pragmatic Institute do?

Pragmatic Institute is a tech bootcamp with courses in data science, product management, and product marketing. The bootcamp offers 2-3 day workshops in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, New York City, Austin, London, and other cities. But, locations, course offerings, and schedules change every month, so students should plan ahead. In addition, they have online options for data science as well.

Under the product marketing and management umbrella, the bootcamp offers individual courses in marketing foundations, strategic market planning, product launches, building a product, aligning product and development efforts to customers, pricing, and the business of data science. However, those interested in taking a data science workshop have 2 options: data science essentials and practical machine learning. All workshops include a mix of lectures and hands-on projects. 

As for online options, Pragmatic Institute has data science courses that last 3 to 8 weeks. Classes meet twice a week for 3 hours per session. Plus, the data science essentials and practical machine learning courses cover the same material as the in-person workshops, but over the course of 4 weeks.

Students in the fundamentals course focus on Python, object-orientated programming (OOP), NumPy, and Pandas. The machine learning course covers regression, classification, fit and predict methods, data matrices, scikit-learn, classification, and building a clustering algorithm with real-world data. For those looking to brush up on the basics, the bootcamp also offers an online 3-hour Python fundamentals course. 

Data science

The data science curriculum includes 2 advanced options as well: advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence with TensorFlow. Students enrolled in the 8-week advanced machine learning course cover anomaly detection, recommendation engines, transformers, preprocessing, unsupervised learning, and decision trees.

Meanwhile, those in the 4-week artificial intelligence course focus on building simple iterative algorithms with TensorFlow, developing larger networks with TensorBoard and Keras API, optimization, basic neural networks, convolution networks, the inception model and deep dream algorithm, adversarial noise, variational auto-encoders, and recurrent neural networks.

The online data science courses are recorded, so students can refer back to previous material. In addition, students complete projects based on the concepts covered in the lectures. The projects use real-world datasets and provide participants with the opportunity to practice, develop, and debug. Projects are graded by software, so students receive immediate feedback on their work.

Who is Pragmatic Institute for?

People who are looking to develop skills in data science, product management, and product marketing could benefit from the courses offered by Pragmatic Institute. However, they do not provide career coaching or job seeking resources.

What does Pragmatic Institute cost? How much work is involved?

Tuition for courses at Pragmatic Institute range from $199 to $2,895. The 1-day 3-hour intro to Python course is the cheapest option. Alternatively, the 8-week advanced machine learning course is the most expensive. The average price for individual courses hovers around $1,000.

To enroll in a product management or product marketing course, students need to register online and make a payment. But, candidates with an interest in the data science offerings must take an online self-assessment to determine which course to take. Then, after completing the assessment, students can register and make their payment. 

Currently, Pragmatic Institute does not offer financing options. 

Ratings and reviews

The online reviews of Pragmatic Institute’s product management and marketing courses are generally positive. One reviewer on Indeed reports that “while not groundbreaking with new methodology, it provides a solid framework and reinforcement of what PM’s typically are (or should) already be doing”. Another reviewer benefited from the “examples, challenging interactions, and networking.” 

But, one grad who took Pragmatic Institute’s marketing course felt that the program needed to update their materials. She said that the workshop should “acknowledge the various types of design roles within an organization, describe specific user research techniques, and cover basic design principles.” 

Otherwise, there are not many reviews online of Pragmatic Institute. There are no reviews of the data science program, which began in 2019. 

Alternatives to Pragmatic Institute

There are a number of alternative bootcamps and online resources that can help aspiring data scientists, product managers, and marketers if you decide not to enroll in Pragmatic Institute.

More alternatives
  • edX is one of the largest online learning platforms. They have courses from top universities like Harvard and MIT as well as big tech companies like Microsoft. Learn more about edX in our review.
  • Similarly, Codecademy is one of the most popular coding programs online. They provide free courses on many different programming languages. They also offer membership options ranging from $20 to $40 per month for more course options and support. Learn more about Codecademy in our review.
  • Likewise, Coursera, Udemy, and Learn@Forbes also offer courses in marketing, data science, design, web dev, and more, often for a low cost.
  • You can consider BrainStation, One Month, GW Bootcamps, or Flatiron School are bootcamps with tracks in data science, product management, marketing, UX/UI design, and web development.
  • Current and aspiring project managers can benefit from taking the product management bootcamp at Product School or the courses at Product Academia.
  • Those looking to advance their product management skills and network with a community of peers can check out membership and classes at Product Gym.
  • Similarly, product managers with some experience can check out the community and courses on Mind the Product.
  • Alternatively, aspiring product managers can check out Product Faculty. They offer a part-time bootcamp to help people learn the skills to land a job in product management.
  • Students can also check out Thinkful and Knowledge Officer, which have courses in product management, marketing, and more.
  • Free online resources, SoloLearn and the Mode tutorials have tracks in SQL, as well as other programming languages.
  • Students located in the Bay Area or looking to work in Silicon Valley can check out Tradecraft, which has tracks in product design, growth marketing, engineering, and sales.
  • SEMRush Academy, QuickSprout, and HubSpot Academy offer free courses in their software as well as other digital marketing topics.

How does Pragmatic Institute compare to Pathrise?

Pragmatic Institute is a tech bootcamp. Their courses are for people who are interested in developing skills in data science, product management, and product marketing. At Pathrise, fellows in our program should already have some background in their field of interest so that they can participate fully in our workshops. This prepares job-seekers for the questions they will see in their technical interviews. 

Pragmatic Institute does not offer career coaching or job search guidance. At Pathrise, our mentors have years of experience on both sides of the hiring table. Fellows receive 1-on-1 support every step of the way. Our workshops and sessions focus on technical and behavioral interviewing, as well as resume and LinkedIn optimization, portfolio building, reverse recruiting lessons, and negotiation guidance.

The Pathrise program is flexible. There are only 2-4 hours of sessions per week. Fellows can schedule 1-on-1 sessions when they need them. The curriculum is personalized to address each fellow’s specific needs. The Pathrise income share agreement means that fellows don’t need to pay until they start working at a new job they love and we never require upfront payments or deposits.

Pathrise is a career accelerator that helps people land their dream job in tech through 1-on-1 mentorship. If you are interested in working with any of our mentors to optimize your job search, join Pathrise. 

Apply today.

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