QuickStart

Quick Start was a training program that I needed to push me. They never gave up on me, they worked with me so I could understand the terms, practices, and procedures, also how to apply them. They gave me all the tools I needed plus two vouchers after I completed the boot camp. My decision to join Quick Start was a great choice. Before I forget, my instructor is really good, he wasn't one of those who didn't care if you understood, he would ask us questions to make sure we understood. He never allowed us to go on even if we had to take a breather and come back, we did just that. This was an experience, no, a journey I never knew I could accomplish. If I had a choice again, Quick Start is where I'd be! Thank you
 Michael J

QuickStart's cybersecurity program was exactly as its name implied - it was a quick start!  Within the six-month program, I learned advanced security concepts for networks and devices.  I familiarized myself with multiple operating systems, and got to do lots of the cool stuff - hacking!

I will say that six months simply is not enough time to learn everything.  The knowledge that I got from this program was really enough to learn how much I don't know.  But QuickStart gave me enough of a foundation that I am capable of carrying out my own cyber education from here on.  I know where to go and what to look for to find the answers to the questions I still have.  

Something though that I think distinguishes QuickStart (it was my deciding factor when choosing between programs) is its career readiness.  The statistic that sold me was that 85% of graduates of the program receive a job offer in their respective fields within 90-180 days of their graduation.  After graduating, QuickStart follows up with knowledgeable career counselors and advice that is legitimately helpful.  

While the program does have a pretty steep price (I considered this too!), I do think that it was worth the cost.  It includes the cost of the CompTIA certification of your choice after the program, and the skills you learn truly are invaluable.

Having been through more educational programs than most (a Master's, Bachelor's, and two Associate's), I can say that this course was the most "bang for my buck."  Even a person coming in with no technological background can become a cyber professional very quickly.

Thanks, QuickStart!

All five of my rating categories being 5 stars is for a reason. My personal experience with QuickStart hasn't been a short one because occasionally staff and recruiters will still check up on me (that's impressive because it's been 2 years since I graduated).

Curriculum: Jam packed curriculum that does contain everything you'll need for tests/exams. Not sure about you, but I'd rather have a boot camp that over informs me on the topic I'm preparing for.

Instructors: I think my instructor's name was Bill. Phenomenal at what he does and an industry expert. So he gave us a heads up on when to look at certain topics and differentiate between an academia standpoint and then how it's done in practice throughout the industry.

Job Assistance: I actually got my job halfway through the course before they officially started helping. I could put N/A for this portion but I put these projects from the boot camp in my resume and know I only got the position due to having taken this boot camp. It made finishing the course harder with a new job, but I did finish things out.

Overall Experience: Typically the overall experience is an average of all other metrics and so this would naturally be a 5 star. I had some worries about how I'd pay for all this and chose one payment type, but that ended up being rough for my situation. QuickStart was actually willing to help me change back my payment method/plan to the one I should have done from the get go though so bonus points and kudos to them for being flexible. Note: I did not convince them to help me by yelling at them or acting like they owed it to me.

Lastly, if you ever get to speak to Gwen, one of the recruiters, or Bill/William, one of the instructors, they are very valuable connections to have.

About me: I am absolutely an optimist and crave inspiration. I am in the construction industry looking to transition into the cyber realm. I have a career plan and I thought this would fast track me into a job with better pay doing work I am most interested in.

Here is my experience:
I saw an ad which exclaimed that the average salary of graduating students is $80,000. I was hooked, this is my way to find a bit of financial security and land a job with real potential and growth opportunities. So, I sign up to pay, for me, ~$8000 over a span of 6 months. Expensive? Maybe, but it will way off, literally, and I will delve into learning about cyber security and continue that growth when I land a job. But, You must know that not everyone who gets out of this program is applying as new into the cyber world. Some may already have a background and will more easily find a job with higher pay. For me, I do not have the most impressive resume, but I am trying to build it. I have been done with the program for a little over two months and have still not yet landed a job. I began by applying for jobs that sounded really cool and interesting, but have regressed to applying to any and every job I find all over the US many of which would either be the same pay or less than I am making now. I am finding that I will most likely need to get certified in Network+ and Security+ ($600) to not only (possibly) land a job, but to keep practicing what I've learned so I do not lose it because I work in an unrelated industry that takes a lot of my time. 
Know this, in the cyber world, you will need to continuously need to increase your knowledge, so getting these certs are just going to be a part of that process.

The learning:
As I have read in other reviews on here, yes, most of the learning is someone just reading off of a power point, and if you have a small screen, it is a horrible learning experience, so I bought larger monitors ($400). It is a cram session every time and not intuitive whatsoever. Along with this course I purchased other resources ($600), and watched free YouTube academies where teachers were much more practical, interesting, and engaging. 
When it came to the mentor who we met with twice a week, some days were better than others, but he seemed more interested in giving the answer than to engage in diving deep into cyber talk. Was told, "you don't need to worry about that right now" on a couple different occasions. 
I was under the impression that this would just make me really excited to learn and grow in cyber security, but ended up having to get my inspiration from outside resources.

But you should also know that so much of cyber security entails the ability to do research and gain information from multiple resources, so me having to do that just worked that muscle and was a learning experience in itself, but regardless, if I am paying 8000$ I would hope to have an all inclusive and impressively engaging experience. 
On a positive note:
The projects were fun and a bit difficult, but not too hard. I ended up making them more difficult than they needed to be thinking it was going to be more in depth. But this is also a learning experience, because there is no need to make the problem more difficult than it is. Also, it is crucial, as you grow in your cyber career to build a portfolio and these projects are something you can add to this.

Job acquisition process: 
Both my career advisor and resume/job interview advisor have been engaging and have helped me put together a resume/LinkedIn page and provided many helpful resources. I have yet to acquire a job, but I will continue to stay positive and keep applying as it is not up to QuickStart to get me a job, but to get out there and keep trying, re-evaluate and try again.  

For QuickStart:
I would suggest having tests after each video which (for example) has the questions for the Network+ exam relatable to everything taught in the video. 
After the next video, having from the exam about what was taught in that video ad the preceding video as well. Repetition is key and keeps you thinking cohesively and reminding you how they connect. This will not only drill the knowledge in, but be rewarding to the student after they have just spent 1-2 hours trying to hold in all the necessary knowledge. Even more so, if possible, having the section/time stamp of the video on the question asked, so if you get the question wrong, you can re watch and remember what the answer is and how you get there. To me, because the test is 200 questions long and the knowledge is abundant, the learning process should be made as easy as possible. I would also have practice tests that you can study and review all the questions your have been reviewing throughout the module. And, if possible, monitor the exam so the students cannot look up answers during the exam. Make the tests difficult and the learning process engaging and easy, not easy tests and difficult learning process. This would provide you the opportunity to make the projects more complex and provide your course with more credibility allowing you to get students into those $80,000 salary jobs. 

If not that, since you do not receiving reputable certs for completing the Network+, Security+, Pentest+ etc. exams, maybe revamp the whole learning experience and just teach real world examples of which engage the learner having them virtually practice along with a teacher going through examples and have questions that reiterate what was learned. Keeping the student engaged should be the number one goal. Not getting them through the program where there is just so much knowledge given that there is no way it truly sticks.
Also, I do not think that the teacher's face needs to be on the screen the whole time, it only makes seeing his/her screen more difficult. 

In the end, I try to learn from everything I do and I learned a lot and this has pushed me into another phase of my career path. But, as of now, and respectfully, as the course is, I would not recommend another to spend $8000 dollars of their hard earned money on it. That being said, I am very grateful for all the help provided and time spent by the mentor and advisors and I believe there is a lot of potential to the course.

I was contacted about a 26-week Cyber Security boot camp through Quickstart at the University of Texas at Arlington. I was sold and was anxious to start. The first several weeks were more or less a review for me being in IT for the past 7 years, however, when we got into the good stuff oh man it was fantastic. I learned so much in such a short time. I was able to write a Python program to scan ports, and before you knew it I was hacking into systems. It's so much fun and a great place to start. Approximately 3 months after graduation, I interviewed and received an offer from the US Navy as a SYSADMIN INFOSEC IT SPECIALIST. I owe it all to Quickstart and the Cyber Security Bootcamp.

       Hi, my name is Calvin, and I took Cybersecurity Bootcamp online with QuickStart. The 24-week program was offered by QuickStart through the University of Texas at Arlington. My bootcamp mentor was great! We met twice a week in the evening through Zoom and he answered all the questions students had. There were a lot of hand-on virtual labs for me to learn and gain experience, from hardware to software, networking to cybersecurity, and ethical hacking to CySA+. The students were assigned four projects (you can later use them to showcase your knowledge to recruiters), from setting up and configuring a virtual network with different servers and Kali machines. Another project was involved in writing a Python script to scan for open TCP ports. The last two projects involved Ethical Hacking and Cybersecurity Analyst working with pfSense and Snort. There was another project about penetration testing for those students who wanted to take pen testing pathway, Overall, I learned and gained a lot of knowledge in cybersecurity with QuickStart Bootcamp. 
Career Service has been awesome, I graduated at the end of April 2023 and have been receiving coaching on different topics, from how to build an eye-catching resume to one-on-one discussion about soft skills employers were looking for, how to do Boolean search for better results on LinkedIn, Indeed, and Dice, etc. The commonly asked behavioral interview questions were discussed as well to prep me for successful interviews. QuickStart provided me free access to Enhancv.com, which is an online resume builder. Overall. the career service staff are wonderful people I have got to know and became acquainted, I [now] feel that career service staff have become my family!
       I'm currently going to school at GCU to get my master's degree in cybersecurity. But rest assured that I would not be able to get in the master program without QuickStart's Cybersecurity Bootcamp. Mr. Childress, a student counselor at GCU, affirmed that I was accepted to the program because I have had cybersecurity courses. I am doing quite ok at GCU in my master program thanks to the solid foundation in cybersecurity I received from QuickStart. 
      Please think again if you expect that, after you sign up for QuickStart's Cybersecurity Bootcamp, complete the program, you will get hired by a great company. I agree that the mentors and career service staff are wonderful, they try to help and get you ready for interviews, in all ways can be thought of. But it is up to you to make the impression on your interviewers, it is up to you to "sale yourself" to the managers who decide whom to hire. I've heard and actually "talked to" - through LinkedIn, a newly graduation from QuickStart, who landed a dream job with GM Financial after six weeks post graduation. I guess she really knows "how to sale herself to the interviewing managers".  

This bootcamp is a great, hands-on experience for anyone interested in getting into the security field of IT. Do not be fooled though, this is an accelerated program and you WILL have to put the time and effort in. If you decide to go through the program, please do not get discouraged on finding a job. The career counselors will greatly assist you, but I highly recommend you start networking early via friends, family, and LinkedIn. Upon graduating,  I was able to land an IT Technician job at a school district quite a distance away from home. Within a year and a half of landing that role, I found another position close to home as a System Admin, and was recently promoted to Security Admin at the same company. Trust the process and feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn:

 linkedin.com/in/zzell0998

I invested considerable time in researching the most suitable course for my career path and ultimately decided on Quickstart. Embarking on the cyber security bootcamp in mid-May, I successfully completed it within the expected timeframe, finishing in late October. My instructor, William Clark, was exceptional. His expertise was consistently on point, and he was always ready to provide additional assistance outside of class when needed.


The course significantly bettered my preparedness for future certifications, surpassing what other programs could offer. Following the completion of the course, my career coach, Gwen Gayhart, played a pivotal role. Her guidance was phenomenal, and I genuinely believe I wouldn't have secured a job without her insights. Having navigated unemployment and career pivots multiple times, I can confidently say that Gwen and the Quickstart team stood out as the best I've ever worked with.


Their advice proved invaluable, and I can attest that following their guidance yielded the desired returns. I am genuinely thankful for this experience. Thank you, Quickstart!

It is a good program, I loved it, but it is definitely a fast paced program.  I was able to understand and follow the program but towards the end, it did get a bit faster pace. Which I did fell behind.
The project does help a lot, it teaches you a lot of good tools. I do wish that the program would be guided and driven to learn about the project, but I guess that is the way the program was created to make you think outside the box and get you out of your comfort zone.
Francisco Ventura

I was looking to change careers from retail to IT. If you're looking for an opportunity to learn at your own pace while still working or taking care of a family, this course would be perfect for you. The courses don't overwhelm you. My coach was wonderful and was always available to answer any questions that I had. The job assistance team was fantastic. They have a wealth of knowledge and resources to get you noticed. I was very fortunate to get hired in just a few month after graduation.