Thinkful

-Pros -
It will provide you with good and updated material to get your skills sharp on the language that they are teaching you.
It is fast paced, it will make time fly and you will be learning a lot really fast.
It will challenge yourself as a professional,... Read More and you will understand the meaning of "detail oriented'.

-Cons-
- Why didn't I start this program earlier? - I ask myself this question almost everyday.

It may seem overwhelming at the beginning but trust me they will provide you with the tools for your success. Understand that this boot camp is what its name means, it will require of your time to sit down and put the hours in. I currently have a full time job, my afternoons and evenings I have to dedicate to the program in order to stay on meeting my dates.

Note: My experience was with Thinkful's Engineering Immersion program. There are several tracks within Thinkful, and each is structured slightly differently.

Deciding to join a boot camp is a very nerve-wracking decision. For me, it was a total career... Read More change, so I wanted to minimize my risk as much as possible. I decided to go with Thinkful after seeing that they regularly post their job placement rates online and that they have a job placement guarantee.

The actual program ended up being extremely challenging. I put in anywhere from 40-70 hours a week, depending on that week's content. The material is challenging, but the pace felt spot on for what I wanted to get out of it. During the program I always felt pushed, a little overwhelmed at times. As a result, I left the program feeling like my skills were good enough to not only land a job, but to be comfortable in a new role.

For the Engineering Immersion program you'll meet with an instructor twice a day to go over the day's material and check in on everyone's progress. Then, you'll pair program with another student until the end of the day. There is always support from the instructors and from mentors. On a typical day, we could have someone helping us within 5-10 minutes if we really got stuck on a tricky concept. Having that support meant that I never felt like I was wasting my time. Twice a week you'll meet with your mentor to go over anything that you feel like you need help with. Finally, after the course is complete, you'll be assigned a career coach to help you navigate finding that first job. For me, landing that first gig took just under two months from graduation.

Thinkful is a challenging, rigorous program. If you're looking to skate through with minimal effort and start applying to jobs, this probably isn't the program for you. If you're looking to build solid foundational skills and put in the time to learn, then Thinkful has the right resources to help you succed.

I'm surprised to see that there are so many straight-up positive reviews of Bloc. I'm a graduate of the Designer program, I can say they got some things right and some things still need work. I'll start with the not-so-great. The curriculum around front... Read More end dev felt piecemeal and choppy. I had to slow down a lot during those sections to seek out other resources because their lessons were confusing. The self-paced program made it easy to get more time to slow down when I needed to. I had different 5 mentors in the 14 months it took me to complete the program. Some gave constructive criticism but others just patted me on the head and said "good job". That was frustrating at points, however, it was very easy to change mentors when I wasn't satisfied, and I recommend changing if you're not getting what you want out of your mentor sessions. I'm the kind of person who likes to collaborate, so I felt pretty lonely in my work for most of the time I was in Bloc. I recommend engaging as much as possible with the social channels on Slack and going to events/meetups early on to connect with other designers. I appreciated how much emphasis there was on career prep and how much support I got in my job search. Job searching is the worst kind of boring work you'll ever have to do and it takes a lot of energy to stay motivated. My career coach was very supportive and helped me get to the point where I felt confident sending out my portfolio, resume, LinkedIn profile, etc. I supplemented a lot of the curriculum with my own reading list. Bloc, for example, might just say "make a user survey", but not address how to approach it or what makes a good survey question. It's not a bad approach to just say "ok, go try to solve this problem", but there were times I felt lost and could have used a more instruction/discussion. I would suggest building in some time for non-required reading and research. UX is an emerging field that is changing all the time and Bloc is making an effort to remain flexible and change with it. I appreciate that they are really good about asking for feedback and constantly making changes to improve the program. Overall, I would say this program is challenging and you have to bring a lot of intention, motivation, and curiosity to be successful. You will probably be frustrated with it at some points, but the people are great and it's a good value for the price point.

I’m just beginning to finish up my Fundamentals Modules for the Product design Track on Thinkful and so far I’m super impressed. I left my full full time job to pursue this and it’s hand down the best investment I’ve made in myself to date. The curriculum... Read More is super thorough (which is super helpful to someone with no experience in the field such as myself), and the feedback from the graders is always helpful (unless you pass right away, in which they usually say something that can be summed up in a “job well done”). My mentor is great, and is an awesome match personality wise. Having the two 45 minute one on one sessions each week is a huge perk. I don’t see how anyone could do this well with out them. If you’re hesitant and reading reviews to help make a decision, I say take the jump!

I am a couple of months into Thinkful's full-stack flex program, and I could not be happier! For me, the most important thing has been my sessions with my mentor. Having one on one time with a seasoned developer is absolutely priceless. The program managers... Read More are amazing, they are there to cheer you on and be there for anything you might need. Then, there is the Thinkful Slack community, just open lines of communication and students, alum and support staff helping each other out non-stop. It is clear from day one that Thinkful wants you to succeed and will be there with you every step of the way. This is a top-notch program, and I would recommend it to anyone!

I am really enjoying working through the Thinkful curriculum, and the support of my Thinkful mentor and the community has really helped me through the process. I am currently a part of the Full Stack Flex program and one thing I really appreciate about... Read More this program is the flexibility to be able to get the work done outside of working my day job. The curriculum provides a lot of helpful reading, which I can sometimes do on-the-go, and the way the projects and assignments are structured is super engaging. They have elevated the program even more to include more online community among students as well as some local meet-ups and networking events.

I was so excited to start Bloc's Designer Track - I liked the flexibility, the mentorship, and the curriculum. I just did not respond well to the teaching style. The curriculum and modules are very text heavy. There are limited videos and what is supplied... Read More is not always directly relevant to the content. They offer pre-recorded videos and support via a Slack channel, but even that is still very much driven by the written word. I am very visual (probably why I was drawn to design!) so I learn best by seeing things done. Reading about theories and practices, then being asked to apply that info without much/any demonstration was very difficult for me. I spent more time searching for external resources than I did in the actual checkpoints. I think it could be great for people who are able to teach themselves with limited resources, but I found myself getting increasingly frustrated. Definitely know your learning style before committing!

Before Thinkful I was working in IT. Thinkful gave me the tools and resources to help me launch my career in tech. My mentor was really helpful in answering my tech/non-tech related questions. After graduation, I was able to land my engineering job within... Read More my current company. As someone that already has student loans, I was a little bit on the fence but it was worth it in the end.

Thinkful's Data science flex program was truly a wonderful experience. I met some supportive and knowledgeable people here. The program stands out for it's one on one mentorship and i was matched up with an excellent mentor. He walked me thru every concept... Read More and gave me pointers to improve my projects. Curriculum covers almost every topic in data science briefly and it's up to the student to choose a specialization towards the end. Mock interviews and presentations helped me boost my confident levels and exchange ideas with other mentors and students.

Overall it was a great experience and i managed to graduate in 6 months with a full time job.

Pros:
Having a good mentor is a key component. My mentor was available whenever I needed help and was very patient. The mock interviews and the presentations helped with my confidence level. The mock interviews were very helpful as they pointed out how... Read More and where I needed improvement. The curriculum was updated while I was still on the old curriculum. I did go back and look at one of the new curricula for regression and the new lessons are better. I wish I had them when going through the course. But all in all, the experience with Thinkful has been pleasing. It was hard work and I did find myself getting burned out midway through. One good thing is you have pause time to use if you need to step away and regroup.

Cons:
I wish you could extend the Bootcamp by a week so that if you go over the 6 months by 1 week you don't get charged for the full month.