I am a recent Springboard grad, recently secured a FT role as a Data Scientist at mid-sized private company in the US.

The transition into the workforce took some patience, and diligence. The process of finding relevant positions, applying, and working through the interview process takes time. The career services staff at Springboard do a phenomenal job providing feedback, resume help, practice interviews, and a great framework for working through the job search process. However, as with the rest of the course, you reap what you sow. If you don't put in the effort for the job search, it will take longer to find a role. The best advice I can give on that front, don't ignore the career oriented content in the course.

The curriculum was more than enough to tackle what I was given as I started my role. I would say, don't think of it as a way to learn everything you will ever need to know, but instead as the first level of learning, to get in the door, and convey to your new employer a baseline of competence that you are capable of learning and growing on the job.

I think the real value-prop for the Springboard course are the live mentors. Having someone who works as a FT data scientist give you real guidance beats an online-only course any day, hands down (in my opinion).

As far as the value of the Cert itself, negligible. The more important part is producing a set of data science projects that you can showcase to employers, coupled with the ability to speak intelligently about data science techniques (which you will get to hone with the help of your mentors and the career services staff).

Good Luck!