Mastered Studios Reviews 204

What a brilliant experience! The past 8+ weeks have been packed with valuable insights, practical tools, and game-changing strategies. I’ve learnt so much and I’m already applying the lessons to my business with real impact.

The mentors and tutors were incredible – knowledgeable, supportive, and genuinely invested in our growth. Communication throughout was seamless, and the deep dive into areas my business was lacking has made a world of difference.

As a freelancer and business owner, I feel so much more confident in my approach and, most importantly, I’m enjoying the journey again. This bootcamp helped me reconnect with my purpose and sharpen my business mindset.

Highly recommended to any freelancer or business owner ready to level up their skills and take their business seriously!

The experience was refreshingly positive. It also taught me much and gave valuable advice, which I will apply to my business. I feel refreshed and hopeful after it.

Just completed the Mastered Business Skills for Freelancers Bootcamp (West of England Combined Authority) and it was top drawer! Learnt so much from the great team of mentors. I now have a better understanding about running my business Made Grand. Very highly recommended!

I started this course back in October 2024 to help me build my chalkboard business. I cannot describe what an amazing experience it has been! I have taken my little hobby and made it into a successful ‘proper’ business which is growing bigger and better everyday! I have been able to give up the corporate world and focus purely on my creative dreams. Never in a million years did I think I would be able to earn enough to survive and hopefully thrive in the near future! I learnt how to rebrand, build a website, how to manage my finances and time effectively and also met some amazing other creatives along the way. My mentor Elinor has been so supportive, helped me focus on what was really important and also helped me to be able to actually introduce myself as an Artist and to be proud of that. I cannot recommend this experience highly enough for anyone who has a dream, no matter how crazy, to be your own boss in an industry you love.

Could not believe how good (and beneficial) this bootcamp was - or that it was funded! The best takeaways have been a mega confidence boost, help figuring out where to invest my time and focus, and an amazing community that just ‘gets’ it. I would say that, for most people, there will be some stuff you already know covered in the content, but there will also be new info that sparks a whole new approach or line of thinking. If you’re thinking of applying, don’t hesitate.

The Business For Creatives bootcamp has been really helpful. I'd recommend it for new business owners as well as creatives that are already running a business (like myself). I've learned new things, as well as having a refresh on the bits I had learned before.
I'm very much looking forward to implementing my new action plan over the next 6 months with the continued support, and to where my business will be in the coming years.

This is the best bootcamps I've attended so far. I feel more confident running my business and now use AI everyday and integrated in many of my business workflows.

Thanks to the team at Mastered

I've just finished an 8 week Business for Creatives course and it was an incredible kickstart for my business. Probably one of the best things I've done so far.
I can't thank the mentors and tutors enough, they were all so helpful and passionate and really wanted us all to succeed.
It's intense at times (especially the finance section 🙃) but so, so worth it!
I've also met some of the most incredible business owners attending the course alongside me that I'll be keeping in touch with. It's so valuable to have a network that you can bounce ideas off of or just have a moan about your tax return and they get it so it's worth joining even just for that.
I was sceptical to begin with as you never know what to expect with these things but so, so glad I saw it through to the end.

Yesterday marked the final day of my 8-week journey with the Mastered Bootcamp: Business Skills for Creatives.

It’s truly been an intense and inspiring experience. This bootcamp brought together creatives from all kinds of backgrounds - illustration, photography, videography, fashion, visual arts, graphic and product design, and more.

Each person brought something unique to the table, and I walked away not only with valuable learnings, but with fresh perspectives.

Over these 8 weeks, I gained more clarity and confidence around topics we often shy away from as creatives - business planning, pricing, time management, branding, sales, marketing, and navigating that oh-so-tricky thing called networking.

We talked openly about things that make many of us uncomfortable - selling ourselves, marketing our work, or even just saying out loud: “Yes, I run a business.”

I wholeheartedly recommend this course to anyone - no matter your level of experience!

Couldn't recommend this more!

I have learnt so much and the support and on going 6 month support is vital for my business and personal development. I really would recommend this to any creatives looking for support and direction :)

I can't recommend the Mastered Course for creatives enough. I have learned so much and feel confident I will be running my business in a much better way now. The team are lovely and so helpful and supportive. It's also a great way to meet other creatives and become a part of a community of like minded people. If you're considering signing up, go for it!

The Mastered Bootcamp experience is good if you can get it as part of the Government Upskill grant. However I wouldn't pay for it.

There is no actual teaching done, it's pretty much join the bootcamp, spend 1-2 weeks going through your induction and planning your portfolio piece in concert with your 1-2-1 mentor and then working on that for 4 months (the 2 week induction counts towards that).

The bootcamp consists of 4 main components in phase 1 and 1 in phase 2. Phase one is the initial 4 months of bootcamp learning. During this time you'll take part in the following activities:

Phase 1 -
1. Weekly Scrum meetings with your 1-2-1 mentor which last an hour, this is where you'll give them a progress update as to how you're progressing on your project and get to ask them questions on how to do something or what to make improvements on if you're stuck. - This is by far the best part of the bootcamp.

2. Monthly group presentations of where your project is and how things have been going. - Normally done in smaller groups lasting up to 2 hours (though it never did in my experience), these were okay but didn't really give anything of value to me.

3. Monthly Interview preparation where you'll be in a Zoom call with a 6-18 people and a lecturer. This is where you'll get an insight as to what skills employers might be looking for and what to do in interviews. - This is mostly common sense and lasts for 2 hours, it has a few points of value and allows you to share your struggles with other developers, but generally it had little to nothing to offer.

4. Monthly Live Creator Challenges, these are full 9 hour days where you'll receive a challenge at the start of the 9 hour day such as programming a type of AI and then have 6 hours in which to plan and build your prototype. The other 3 hours are for your lunch, morning meet up and the presentations at the end. - This was pretty good as it teaches you to learn what you can and can't do in a short period of time and also exposes you to different challenges you may not have done before.

Phase 2 -
1. Accountability sessions. These sessions are designed to 'Help' you with your job searching and keep you accountable otherwise you will be offboarded. In reality, the only support I received was CV/CoverLetter related as well as different job boards. It serves as a way for them to have an excuse to cut off continued support if you don't meet their own quota of job searches every month.

Overall Experience / View:
I'd say in general it was positive, though at times unprofessional. The people running Mastered aren't the best, they don't provide flexibility and in some cases will threaten you with offboarding even though you've mentioned during your recruitment that you have issues meeting their schedule, I had one of the members of the team who no longer works there say "Unfortunately I have to be the bad cop and tell you unless you attend this lesson you will be offboarded, no exceptions". There is a little flexibility to the schedule, but they will not be happy if you request it.

The best members of the team are the tutors, the men and women doing the 1-2-1's who are actually experienced in the industry trying to help you. I can only Imagine how much better this would all be if there was some structure to the courses. As currently it's just make a project and that's it. Something you could easily do on your own.

What do I mean by structure? Lectures on different topics of importance in each course. If I'm doing an AI course, do lectures/lessons about Finite State Machines, Behaviour Trees, Goal-Oriented AI, Machine Learning AI etc. Topics that would be important talking about for everyone doing AI.

By far the biggest criticism I have however is the promised interview on the main website. This is a half-truth. Once you finish your project and they compile a list of your skills, they 'match' you with a suitable employer. The big turnoff however was the fact that in the message sent to me arranging these interviews, the language was as follows "X company wants to arrange a mock interview with you". And as I've found out, all interviews are essentially mock interviews after doing my interview, this I'll explain later.

My first suggested interview wasn't even in the field I had done for my bootcamp and wasn't even in an area I asked for. So I refused and asked for a better candidate. I then got an interview with a small startup in Cambridge, the interviewer was great and we had a good time. However he mentioned this was only a mock interview and they were not currently hiring. I asked if this was a frequent occurrence with Mastered and the CEO said "Yes, we keep a catalogue of people we like and if we have a role open up we hire later, but all our Mastered interviews are mocks with no job at stake".. Very misleading and disappointing.

Right.. I'll start off with a couple of positives.
+The mastered staff are all very pleasent and nice.
+The platform they use for communication (Slack) is an industry level platform so it is good to learn with that.
+ Granted they were flexible to work around peoples situations.
+The live creator challenge was quite good as it felt collaborative and was good to get feedback (all day thing) although no real technical support (as I will go into shortly)

However

- First off I was expecting quite a lot more technical tuition as I was coming into this with almost no knowledge of softwares like unreal engine for example. (I made that clear in the admission process but they were like its all fine) They sold it to under the illusion of detailled software guidance and tuition (what I thought might be technical workshops in the target softwares) however what was provided was a 1 hour session once per week with my mentor (nice chap from india) where he would attempt to help me, but the limitations with sharing screen/ interent & technical blackouts (on both ends) caused this hour to pass by prettyy quickly so didn't gain much from that. Furthemore when I asked where I might get this software tuition they pretty much just pointed me in the direction of youtube and skillshare. So then I said to myself.. why am I paying all this money to essentially teach myself the relevent skills via youtube.. which as we all know is free and abundunt with content.
- The course Is expensive for what it is. It was sold with the aura 'get employed & pay later' but the reality of that is yes you dont pay anything initially but they are paired with a company called Student Finance who arent great with communication especially when I was initially trying to pay off my entire debt at once (shock as they make their money via the astronomical interest rate they charge you on the loan) eventually I did so but it took a fair bit of perseverance.
- A creative course like this needs to have more in person tuition. The online factor was good for flexibility but really not my thing as I cant stand staring at a bunch of names with cameras off, I just feel Its just not the right enviroment for something like this.

In conculsion
I would say that if you are actually keen on this industry then just go out and learn the skills on youtube and utilise all of the free resources out there, Thats what I have done since dropping out and I managed to source a job, just luckily without the debt of this...
However if your place is fully funded by the gov then perhaps go for it but in my opinion its not worth the money.
Plus a last point is that the future of Ai is going to have a massive effect on this industry so go and learn how to use those Ai softwares as that will be so much more valuable to you than anything this course can provide at the moment.

Mastered offered me the push I needed for the beginning of my career in the gaming industry.

A team of very friendly and knowing professionals, that taught in a very organised way. They have definitely made me fall in love with blender and I fully recommend this course for anyone who does not know where to start!

Great learning experience! I was a part of 3D Design Bootcamp in December, learned so much and was greatly supported by the course teachers. William Mabin provided me with an essential and practical knowledge on designing in Blender, and Quintus Smit helped with implementing those skills, showed how to utilise them practically, and supported me throughout the bootcamp journey!

This is by far the best coaching experience I've had as a business owner. As a freelancer, I don't have much budget spare for this kind of thing. And so I've tried a few free coaching and seminar programmes before.

This blew all the others out of the water.

For me, the accountability aspect was so valuable. The smaller peer group sessions, the action plan and the one-to-one mentoring have actually meant I've been able to implement some of the things I've learnt.

Highly, highly recommend.

Great course, well matched mentors with lots of ideas, support and expert advice. Really glad I found the course, looking forward to implementing everything I've learnt into my business. Highly recommend this course to any creative feeling stuck and looking to transform their business.

The Business Bootcamp for Creatives course completely changed my life. Brought me clarity and gave me knowledge and tools to use and fall back on at any point in the future. An amazing course: modules so relevant and in an order that made sense to build on. Perfect for anyone with either just a flicker of an idea who wants to start a business or those 20 years experience that just need a boost or help to grow/change direction. I also found the mentors so supportive and incredibly knowledgeable. Really recommend this Mastered Bootcamp.

I took part in a bootcamp for creative businesses and was so glad I did! Everyone was so helpful and knowledgeable and it really gave me a boost to sort my business out.

Beyond grateful to Mastered for giving me the opportunity to join their QA Bootcamp. My uni course didn't offer much in the way of QA, and through Mastered I've gained so many new skills and now have a more thorough understanding of the industry. Through their guidance and the experience I gained, I was able to land a job as a QA Analyst! To all my tutors and fellow testers, thank you!