Pros
Great coworkers Good trainers for the most part Great networking opportunities Access to entry level jobs at blue chip companies Good benefits You can leave FDM without penalty if you don't get placed in 90 days after signing-off
Cons
Minimum wage during training, low pay for the first two years Accommodations for trainees outside the NYC area are not great Despite FDM saying that a technical background isn't necessary, it is highly recommended you have a finance/business/math/stats background I was in the BI Stream at the NY Academy located at Wall Street which lasted for around 10 weeks. The stream itself was not up to my expectation overall. Much of the course material was learned through self-studying and it was incredibly tedious. I didn't learn much after the Excel, SQL, and finance modules. The technologies that are taught during the training also don't seem to align with what clients want, for example many clients wanted trainees to have Tableau experience but that was not taught during the stream. There's no guarantee that you will be placed by the end of your training. In terms of the number of interview opportunities you get, it really depends on the market as client demand does seem to be seasonal. I only got 3 interviews total before I signed-off and some of my colleagues only had one interview, which is way lower than what is the average. The interviews you get may not be relevant whatsoever to your current stream, for example if you were training in the BI/Data Analyst stream, you might get interviews for a project manager or application support role. If you do not get placed after signing-off, FDM will fly you back. You will still get interview opportunities supposedly but it is inconvenient for both parties. You definitely want to get placed before you sign off if you don't live in the area.