Thinkful

After going through the first half of the web development bootcamp at Bloc, I must say that the experience was lacking. I regret spending my money on this program and hope this review will dissuade others from making the same mistake. Firstly, the curriculum... Read More felt shallow. It seems designed to make you just competent enough to say the right things in an interview but not much beyond that. The assignments and assessments did not test for competency, but rather for the ability to regurgitate buzz words. On top of that, the people working as assessors repeatedly made mistakes grading my projects. There were many times when my projects were rejected incorrectly because my assessor did not seem to understand the subject being assessed. Bloc claims that their apprenticeship aspect is what sets them apart from other programs but my apprenticeship experience was also lacking. There were weeks when I didn't even have a mentor assigned to me because of a shortage of mentors. Even when I had a mentor, the meetings lacked direction and felt unproductive. With all of these shortcomings, I do believe that this program could be good for someone who just wants to get a job, as the career prep portion of Bloc's program is robust and requires a lot of leg work from the student. If your aim is solely to land an entry level position, then this program may be for you. However, if your aim is to become a competent web developer there are better and cheaper options. Currently, I am enrolled in a full stack web development program that cost me just $10 on Udemy and I have already gained more from it than I did in my 4 months at Bloc.

January 30, 2019 I started the program back in May, 2018 and i'm currently enrolled in the course. This is a self paced online course that has great accountability and mentorship. My background is in Human Resources so this is a career change for me into... Read More the world of UX Design. I would definitely recommend this course to anyone wanting to get into this field. The curriculum is very thorough and up to date with their content. There are assessments along the way to make sure you are fully grasping the concepts of the design process. They have also included frontend modules to teach HTML, CSS and Javascript, which I understand is a plus for a UX Designer to have. This course is definitely not for the undisciplined, it's an online course and no one is going to press you if you're not doing what you need to do. You will get out of this program exactly what you put into it. It is very intense, and at times down right hard. In the end, I believe I will be better for having taken this course. I look forward to a new career in this field. ~Saphyer

I am nearing the completion of my Bloc program (only one week left!) Bloc has been a great experience for me all around. When you sign up for the program, they say that you will be able to keep your current job and complete the program at the same time.... Read More For me personally, I kept my 9-5 current job for the first 2 months with the plans of quitting after that. When I did that, I temped/freelanced (I was a photographer before my 9-5) which worked perfectly with the program since I was able to choose how much I wanted to work. Once you get past the first module, I am not sure if it is realistic to keep up the 40-50 hour pace of a full time job on top of the 25-30 hour a week dedication time of the program, although I am sure some people do it! For me, it was better to work part time and focus on not only my studies, but learning beyond that. I think that to get the most out of your experience you need to attending their group sessions. Attending meetups. Practice online tutorials. There are so many resources out there and you should be ready to embrace them, beyond what is taught through Bloc. The great thing about this program is that they encourage you to learn beyond what is taught in their material. In terms of jobs, I have had several interviews, which I am sort of in the middle of so I can't say whether I do/don't have a job because I am still completing that process. What I CAN say that before I attended Bloc, I had tried to apply to soft skill marketing jobs and didn't hear back from ONE company (even with several years of experience). Now, I have gotten interviews from 25% of the applications I have put out which is a HUGE progression. The only cons I can think of are that the program is going through some growing pains right now so some of the resources that I have depended on (like their career assistance team and student success team) have been understaffed/slow to reply to emails. I am hoping they fix that up soon because I think they are a huge perk to the program, but I think it's because they are currently going through some transition/growth issues. Otherwise, the mentors have been great, the material is good, and I have had an overall fantastic experience.

Disclaimer: My Job Assistance review on this program is based solely off of one career coach and their knowledge of the industry and individual follow-up. I was able to land a job about a week or so after graduating, therefore, my experience with Job... Read More Assistance was very minimal.

What shined:

- The curriculum was straight forward and the lessons explained concepts well throughout the course.

- The two instructors and two program managers I had during my program were amazing. Extremely well versed in the content, patient, and helpful throughout the curriculum.

What needed help:

- I was paired with a instructor in the beginning who seemed educated on the topics but had a very heavy accent and did not seem to be patient with me. It was a very small bump in the road but I eventually switched to another instructor and it was extremely smooth sailing moving forward.

- Learning can be somewhat difficult at times since it was solely reading and completing examples. For those who work better visually might rely heavily on their instructor and possibly outside resources.

My Take:

If i had to choose a program again, it would most definitely still be this Thinkful Full Stack Flex program. My mentors/instructors were amazing and the curriculum and outline was very clear cut and helped me with my style of learning. My advice for anyone enrolling in this program would be to definitely find chemistry with your instructors, because mine was instrumental in how successful I was in the program.

My experience at Bloc has been positive and negative. I was enrolled for just under 8 weeks in the Designer Track and went through all of the checkpoints in the 1st module, Design Fundamentals. Bloc’s curriculum is not for everyone. I would say to do... Read More your own research on the program before you sign up and understand the emphasis they put on the Frontend portion of the curriculum. Overall, this just wasn’t the program for me in how I want to develop as a designer. Likes - Mentor session weekly Dislikes - Frontend heavy teaching javascript libraries, deployment where this time could be dedicated more to the UX/UI process - Frontend needed for all projects from the end of the 1st module, Fundamentals, through the last project for your portfolio - Multiple people grading the same checkpoint assignments - Unclear directions for checkpoint assignments - Elements required for checkpoint assignment approval not included in directions but told during revision requests - Long wait time for assignments to be graded, for support on Slack, and email responses - Not many live group sessions for Design, mostly for Web Development - Slack support not ideal, for a simple issue a student was helped by 10 different agents through 80+ responses

I'm a current student in Thinkful's Full Stack Flex program (over half-way through) and I am so happy I made the investment for my upcoming career change. There's a lot to say about the program and Thinkful as a whole, so I'll break it down into sections... Read More for readability. (tl:dr - it's a fantastic program with outstanding support and you get out of it what you put in.)

Program - Materials
Like other reviews have said, Thinkful's program is broken down into a series of article-like sections with numerous chapters. They aren't articles in tone, but more in the structure of how information is broken up into easily digestible sections interspersed with drills to accompany the concepts as you learn. The chapters walk you through how to identify, then approach, and then tackle coding concepts, and usually end with an assignment that they estimate should take around an hour (or sometimes more) to complete. These assignments are where things get fun, because they like to add bonus challenges into them in the form of introducing a new concept early (alongside the concept(s) you just learned in the chapter) that you'll learn to tackle via Googling, help with your mentor, or help during office hours, to gain real experience in terms of how it is to be a programmer on-the-job. After you complete an assignment, you can go over it for a code review with your mentor. The big assignments will always be code reviewed by a member of the dev grading team, who will always provide specific and detailed feedback, which has helped me immensely.

The only aspect of Thinkful's curriculum that leaves me wanting is the lack of video content. I sometimes wish harder concepts had video walk-throughs to help solidify information, so I've found myself turning to YouTube once or twice to help my understanding in between mentor meetings.

Program - Pacing
As many reviewers have noted, Full Stack Flex is a self-paced program, with a deadline. If you approach this structure less like your're hopping in and doing some assignments when you feel like it, and more like you're taking a real structured course (because you are!) then you will do fine. Thinkful's goal is for you to get through the program in 6 months, which they say is doable if you dedicate around 20 hours per week to it. I've been lucky enough to dedicate around 30 hours per week to the program, and I am well over a month ahead in the program. I choose this route because I wanted to be in and out of the program in less than six months and the team you learn under is very accommodating to help you do so if you wish. The other great thing about this is if you can zoom through some subjects (like HTML and CSS) but need more time with others (like React, for me) you can slow the pace down a bit and still complete on time. 6 months is VERY reasonable for this program.

Your progress and position in the program are also tracked by your program manager, your mentor, on two areas on your personal Thinkful dashboard. In addition to this, you're also given a spreadsheet at the start of your program that tells you exactly when you need to meet deadlines. And it doesn't just outline big deadlines like capstone projects or tests, but shows you when you should complete each and every section to stay on track.

Support - Mentorship
During the program, you get to have (and must have) 2 meetings per week with your mentor.
I've worked with two mentors with Thinkful. One I had when I elected to take the fundamentals pre-course, and one for the Full Stack Flex program itself. Both of my mentors are outstanding, and I still reach out to my first mentor if I have a quick question or want to share a highlight of my progress. The mentors I've worked with are not only knowledgable but are highly experienced. My current mentor always helps me understand issues I'm facing and also offers to pair program with me on assignments, which not only helps understanding, but shows what it's like to pair program in a job.

Support - Program Manager
Thinkful is outstanding in that a good chunk of their program managers have been devs or have gone through the program itself, so they know exactly what you're going through and they have realistic expectations when it comes to meeting deadlines or how long it may take you to learn different things. They are the ones that make sure you're meeting or exceeding deadlines.

Career Services
Before you're even half-way through, you will get to work with the career services team. They help you identify how to build a strong portfolio and build soft skills and networking skills, including attending events, connecting with professionals, and doing networking outreach. Throughout the course, you will also have evaluations in the form of mock interviews, where the test-administrator (always an industry professional) will interview you just like they would at a job, including soft-skill questions and live coding challenges. Having gone through a handful of these, I already feel prepared to interview for front-end positions confidently and I'm only over half-way through the program. They also help you find where to apply, and industry professionals often come to Thinkful meetups to present and get to know students.

Bottom line:
In my experience: can you get the concepts and information presented by Thinkful elsewhere like on blogs/articles/videos? Yes.

But I choose to pay and dedicate time to the program because they show you not only what you need to learn, but in the most optimized order to do it in, and the access to real devs and engineers along with detailed code reviews and career counseling is very, very worth it to me. Not to mention their curriculum quickly adapts to industry changes (I went from learning css 'hacks' for layouts one week to learning the new flex layout the next when it changed in the 'real world'), which was a huge concern of mine after trying to learn on my own with outdated materials.

The main thing I like about Bloc is the support structure they have in place. You never really feel like you have to go through this alone. The assignment grading is very helpful and so is the staff. The path makes sense and I learn something new with... Read More every assignment.

My favorite aspect of Bloc is the apprenticeship-style structure to learning. I have tried other tutorials/online courses in the past and it never really clicked with me. With Bloc's curriculum and having a mentor to talk every week, I have been able... Read More to retain the concepts and actually understand them. Bloc has really helped me advance in my career as a web developer and I was even able to take on a React project for a client just a couple of weeks after finishing the front-end frameworks section of my curriculum. If you want hands-on experience working with everything you need to become a professional web developer, I'd highly recommend Bloc.

I'm enrolled in Bloc’s web development program and it has been an incredible experience for me. Even though the curriculum is designed to be self-paced, I've never felt I am on my own and adrift. For my part, I commit 25+ hours each week to my course... Read More of study. Admittedly, there is a considerable learning curve; however, after the four month mark, the concepts clicked. I am able to bridge theory to practice and am looking forward to creating my portfolio over the coming months. As each day passes, I become more comfortable and confident. Additionally, I have also consistently been supported by my mentor who I meet once a week online, by the wonderful mentors who are available at all hours of the day on Slack, and the superheroes from student success, such as Taylor. I had a life changing event at the end of November and Taylor was my rock; she worked with me to resolve the concern in such a manner that my studies could continue seamlessly. If your desire is to create a firm foundation in front-end design and a future in the field of web development, the only choice is Bloc.

Hello There! I'm currently a student with Bloc and finishing up the last leg of my assignment/apprenticeship with the UX Design program and I must say that it has been quite a ride. The amount of support you get in the program is on point - the slack... Read More channel is a large community on a global scale all pushing each other to finish, the technical coaches are almost always a key stroke away from getting you "unstuck" from a problem, the recorded and live class sessions are an extremely helpful resource, the student success team constantly check on your progress to ensure you are getting the best out of the program, and the mentors you meet have years of experience behind them to help you unlock your potential into a career you will break into at the conclusion of the program. When I was researching a program to enroll with, I came across a TON of them online, but ended up narrowing down my options to two: 1. Bloc 2. Thinkful And at the end of it all, Thinkful ended up acquiring Bloc, so that in itself speaks great volumes as to what Bloc has been achieving alongside the reputation it has built throughout the years since its inception. I'm glad I chose Bloc!