Thinkful

PROS: The learning process is project based, meaning you learn through creating real-world projects (ie. a Reddit Clone, a Wiki site) that will not only give you a great learning experience but will give you a basis of work for your portfolio when it... Read More comes time to apply for jobs. The Slack channel runs 24/7 with tech agents that are there to help you work through any bugs or confusion you are having. They don't give you the answers, they teach you how to debug and solve it yourself so you can learn how to get unstuck in the future. You have a mentor meeting once a week to get one on one help from Bloc alums who are actively working in the field. Bloc forces you to learn to network and then to put it into practice. You will have to attend in person events, do some cold outreach emails to get in touch with local professionals, and write to companies you are interested in. It's stressful at first, but it is worth it, and it also allows you to create an in-person community which makes up for the fact that you are learning online. Each module ends with a career development section where you spend a few checkpoints working on things like resumes, active networking, interview practice, and doing research on the job market where you are applying. Having this spread out across your time at Bloc is really useful and is a great primer for the final job search module. The assessments at the end of each module are structured like a technical interview. Which like the rest of the Bloc curriculum is great practice for when you are going into the professional world. CONS: It is self paced, there is no given timeline and no one setting deadlines for you to finish checkpoints. I actually liked the self paced nature, but you are someone who needs more structure in order to stay on track then Bloc is not the best choice for you. However, if you are able to self-motivate and keep yourself on track and accountable then you will be fine.

Although Thinkful does teach a decent amount about web development, the careers portion is sub-optimal. They say that even if you are located in a city outside of one of their job guarantee cities, they will treat you "equally" to everyone else when in... Read More fact they seriously prioritize others. When I had to contact my counselors for support they either took forever to get back to me or they provided a job or two with missing links or job descriptions. I recommend staying away from this boot camp because they don't treat everyone fairly.

As a student currently enrolled in the Full Stack Flex program offered from Thinkful, I would 100% recommend enrolling in one of their courses, should you be serious and devoted about perhaps becoming a software developer. The curriculum is solid and... Read More my knowledge of computer coding has gone from being able to manipulate user interfaces very well, to now creating said user interfaces and understanding the technical side, and so much more.

I have yet to use their job assistance, but i imagine it will far exceed my expectations, the same way everything else in the program so far has.

P.S *It’s intended to be a six month course, I’m only able to select a single day when publishing this review.*

I was looking for a Data Science bootcamp because I wanted to be more competitive in the job market and learn some new professional skills. After some research, I chose Thinkful. Difficult course with a very well-written curriculum, although there were... Read More one or two missing techniques I thought should have been in the curriculum as standard. For me, the best things about the course were the mentoring and the careers support. I also met a lot of fellow Thinkful students in my local area to network with. About a month after finishing the course, I got hired as a Data Scientist. All in all, it's been well worth the investment.

Bloc was my first experience with an online bootcamp but I have to say I doubt it gets much better than this. I was very careful with my selection and reviewed many programs before I made my choice because it is a pretty significant time and money investment.... Read More I have been really impressed with the thoughtfulness and relevance of the curriculum and depth of knowledge you can obtain if you put in the time. That said, it is definitely not a course for people not willing or able to put in the time. If you work full-time it's challenging to keep up but it's definitely worthwhile. The mentors are knowledgeable and great to work with and I've definitely learned a lot.

The pros: this program helps you to learn the material needed for a real job in the real world. It has a very rigorous and thorough curriculum that follows up on you with mentor sessions and frequent check-ins with your program manager.
The cons: if you... Read More slack off, you can fall behind graduation schedule very quickly. Since I haven't graduated yet, I have yet to know whether their program is going to succeed with placing me in a job or not.

I took on this course with very little programming experience and left with a breadth of knowledge beyond what I could have imagined. The program covers a ton of information and does a good job diving deeper into certain topics. My one piece of advice... Read More to future students would be to make sure your schedule will accommodate the amount of work that this course requires. While 25 hrs/week is what is supposed to be allotted for the course, there is such an intense amount of material to cover that the more time you have available the better. If you are taking this course part-time be sure to recognize when to draw the line with certain projects because it is easy to get caught up in one and find yourself falling behind. Other than that, this was the best decision I have made for my career. I had the best mentor imaginable. He was extremely knowledgeable and all in all a great guy to work with. I truly enjoyed our bi-weekly meet ups and wouldn't have the skill set I have today without him. I am very grateful to have had this experience with my mentor and the Thinkful program and look forward to continuing a career in data!

I am about halfway through Bloc's Web Developer track and I've had a great experience so far. The curriculum is up to date and is constantly being updated to the tech industry standards. You will learn programming essentials like HTML, CSS, JavaScript,... Read More and React. Not to mention computer science fundamentals and the server side portion of the course, where you will learn the fundamentals of Node.js. Once you begin looking for a career as a web developer, you will find that most job listings are searching for individuals with this exact skill set! Bloc is determined to set you up for success and prepare you for your new career. If you are concerned about taking a fully online course, don't be. Bloc's mentors and Slack community full of industry experts will be there to help you through any sections of the curriculum that you find to be difficult. For anyone who needs a flexible school schedule, and is looking for a relatively inexpensive education in web development, I highly recommend Bloc.

Bloc was my choice for a bootcamp for web development. The course itself was very organized and the curriculum covered a lot of material. I chose Bloc since unlike some other bootcamps, there was a mentorship system where I was able to dive into web developer... Read More fundamentals with senior level engineers. The mentors provided guidance and essentially led me through the curriculum and were easy to communicate with through Slack. Post grad job assistance was helpful, but it mainly was on you as the grad to make your own progress, it's not like the Bloc team is going to find a job for you, they'll be there to help you out with resume questions, cover letters, as well as interviews. The Bloc team is easy to reach out to and they get back to you pretty quickly if you have any urgent questions. The only issue I had would only have to be tweaks made to the curriculum. When I did the program there was more of a focus on different frameworks. I think it would have been helpful for me to learn a framework of my choice since some areas are more heavily focused on React for example instead of Angular. Overall, the experience was good and I learned a lot, and you definitely get what you put into it. So just do all you can to ensure you get the most out of the program.

Thinkful has been a great course so far! I am about 2 months in, and have really gotten into the flow of the course. I chose Thinkful because I wanted a course that I could complete without actually having to show up to a physical classroom. The great... Read More thing is that you still get a massive amount of support. Between mentor meetings, classroom hours, and the community of students, I never feel overwhelmed or stuck. There is always somebody who can lend a hand and give insight to a problem. I tried learning all of this on my own before, but quickly got overwhelmed with the mass amount of technologies and information that is out there. Thinkful lays it all out for you, so that you can focus on learning the skills in an organized, efficient way.