UX/UI Flex

I found that program overall to be rewarding, but highly challenging. I chose the UX/UI certificate because I have some design in my background. The program of 6 months part-time is extremely difficult for working adults. Especially if you have a child and are on a limited budget, still I chose it and graduated in 7 months. There is a bit of deceptive marketing. It's very hard to finish the time permitted -especially if you think you might have your loan forgiven -should you not find work. That is not the case. You are put on a very hard-to-navigate schedule that you must follow in order to have loan forgiveness. Keep in mind this is a bank loan, so there is no Gov deferring.  You are;t in a class with others, that's left to Slack, where you have to ask the community. The advisor I had was a no-show every time I reached out. Homework was often double the amount of hours stated.  The biggest falsehood is they sold me on helping you find something and they would help with any agism you faced. That wasn't true. I did gain a lot from this program in terms of understanding and skill. I like the portfolio I made with the three finished projects. I'm just disappointed in the false marketing. Again, if you are older, I strongly caution against the UX/UI certificate. Maybe go for Data Analytics or coding. 

I would not recommend this boot camp - especially to anyone who does not already have design and/or computer science knowledge. I'm writing this to hopefully save someone else from spending over $7000 on a boot camp that (in my experience) does not prepare you for real-life UX/UI work. The best part about this boot camp, by far, was the mentor that I was lucky enough to be matched with, and my career coach post-graduation. The curriculum was subpar at best, with not nearly enough practical and relevant information. There were several occasions where I found incorrect information that I had to ask my mentor about, and after clarifying the errors, would tell me that I'm not the first one to bring things like this to her attention. There were ZERO team design projects while I attended. Even though the curriculum called one module 'Team Design', it was actually only team design in theory, with fictional team members built into the projects.The Tuition Refund Guarantee is only applicable to students who have not moved during the boot camp (I lost mine because my partner lost his job and we had to move), and after graduating, students have to apply for at least 10 jobs a week for 6 months to be eligible for the refund. They provide helpful career coaching but simultaneously push you to apply for as many jobs as possible immediately after finishing the program. Instead of applying for a ton of random jobs (that the program did not prepare me for), I decided to take on two UX/UI internships and focus on continuing education, aiming to fill the knowledge and experience gaps that Thinkful's curriculum and overall experience left. Bottom line - I would definitely choose another school to invest your money in. There are far too many growing pains still occurring in this one. The sub-par curriculum, lack of practical projects, and total of 0 real collaboration opportunities is not worth +7k. 

Overall, Thinkful is a fantastic program that proved to be an incredibly valuable investment for me. The pros: • Mentors - the individuals who assisted me were all incredibly informative and supportive of me.  Scherry offered me fantastic feedback and moral support through the program. • Academic Success Advisor - Taylor was very empathetic and easy to talk to. She was very compassionate during my time at Thinkful due to several major life events that occurred. Very easy to work with. • Career Coaching - Tom was a great career coach who works diligently to provide as many resources and chances to improve individuals' experiences as humanly possibly. He was very helpful throughout the job hunt and I've been incredibly grateful for his assistance. • Assessment Graders - All of the individuals who graded major assessments provided invaluable feedback. They went above and beyond the call of duty for how to improve and grow. • The resources available to me throughout the program were invaluable. Needs work: • I feel like the communication between departments and enrolled students could have been better. Oftentimes there were issues that were occurring with the program that I had to find out the hard way after I'd wasted countless hours working off of a rubric or assignment - only to find out that the rubric was either incorrect, or the assignment wasn't even applicable anymore. •CHECKPOINT ASSIGNMENTS: I strongly feel that the checkpoint assignments need a serious overview. There were not nearly enough human-graded assignments to ensure that I was properly learning the material. - There were also numerous assignments where the checkpoint hadn't been updated with the current course material. Thus what I was trying to work on proved to be irrelevant and, again, a waste of my time. • Grading of checkpoint assignments: When checkpoints were graded by humans versus automatically checked off by the system, the turnaround time was very frustrating. Thinkful promises that assignments would be graded w/in 48 hours of submittal. However, that rarely happened. Oftentimes I would have to reach out about when I could expect my assignments to be graded so I could move forward. -There were also a few times where the graders hadn't reviewed the assignment they were grading and would fail or provide feedback that wasn't relevant. Things to Consider: • Isolation: The flex plan is very isolating. I definitely urge students to utilize the slack channel. Find a buddy to work with. Even if you aren't at the same point in the curriculum as you, just having someone who understands what you're going through can really enhance your experience. • This course is very difficult. But it's worth it. You need to be able to have the self-discipline to get through it, but also the self-compassion to give yourself a realistic pace and allow for breaks when you can. This isn't a sprint, it's like hiking the AT mentally. You don't really know what to expect, but you know that if you keep on pushing - you'll make it through. • Always look for new ways to learn and forget about the best. Everybody is different and has different interests. Listen to the feedback that you're given and follow through - even if you don't always agree. :)  

I had a good experience in Thinkfuls program. Be prepared to read ALOT. The amount of time you spend with your mentor is just the right balance. I do wish that you could use the TAs when you're in the self-paced program. Overall, the program should give graders more direction with how they view the student's work. 

Overall my experience at Thinkful was great. I definitely recommend this course for anyone switching into the field and needs a solid understanding UX Design and portfolio projects. It took me just about 3 months to land a job after finishing the course- so it is 100% worth it! :) But this course is no joke! It took me almost 9 months to complete and I worked 10-15 hours a week on it. The first project is the UX intensive which teaches you alot, but it is a pretty steep learning curve if you have never had any experience working through UX Design Thinking. I definitely recommend trying to learn about Design Thinking and the overall design process as much as you can at first. It took me sooo long to complete my first project bc that didn't really click in my head until after I finished. The final 2 projects went by way quicker and I had a lot of fun with it. So don't get discouraged! Try to reach out to other students on slack and get feedback or try to connect- it will help you feel less "lost in the sauce" so to speak! Use UI kits and don't try try to reinvent the wheel. Overall I chose this course over other courses because of the following main reasons:1) 1 on 1 mentorship 2x a week2) 3 completed projects to put in a portfolio3) Option to "specialize" (gain a deeper understanding) in front-end design, UI design, or UX research. 

When researching UX/UI Bootcamps, I decided on Thinkful because they were the only program to have a fully invested team behind you during the program and post-graduation. Since graduating the program, I have been in contact with my wonderful career mentor and feel confident that I will land a job in UX/UI within the coming months. Thinkful's program gave general need-to-know information about the topics, but also went a step deeper into what you can expect in the "real-world" of UX/UI. I appreciate this program in dipping my toes into this area of study and am excited to continue my career path all thanks to the Thankful curriculum and team!

As stated in the title, unlike General Assembly who works with everyone to get approved for their ISA. Thinkful does not. In order to participate in their deferred tuition or ISA you must be approved through their loan company, Ascent. What they don't disclose on their website is that not everyone will be approved. Don't dive into their pre-work (which they give you access to right away) until you've applied through Ascent, otherwise you will waste your time. 

The Thinkful UX UI Flex program was a great way for me to build my portfolio and receive mentorship throughout my journey. In fact, my mentor's moral support was the most positive part of my experience, and I am super grateful. However, something to keep in mind: If you work a full-time job, the completion dates for this curriculum are very tight and not realistic. Despite being called a Flex program, it is not very flexible, and your tuition reimbursement guarantee will be revoked if you request additional time.Half of the instructors I encountered during assessments were very professional and helpful, while the other half were unprepared. If you do not get paired with a good assessor, you can try again, but this should not be a hit-or-miss situation put on students. I also noticed a few broken links and resources in the curriculum, but overall, very solid learning materials.

As much as anyone thinking about joining an online boot camp I was skeptical and trying to figure out if it was the right thing to do. The career help and tuition reimbursement was definitely a big help in my decision-making process. I took the UX/UI Design Flex Program. The flex program gave me the opportunity to have a more flexible schedule juggling a full-time job and school. The Flex Program is the same program as the immersive program just a longer course due to it being on your time. The Mentors are great and really help tackle different concepts to help you see things from different angles to make sure you fully grasp the subject. The Success Managers are great also they are always there if you ever have any questions pertaining to the course and always making sure that your putting in the work to stay on track for graduation. I only had one con with the program and I can only say this for my particular course. That is when getting grading feedback for a project you will have revisions to do to pass which is great until a different grader looks at your revisions and decides to add more revisions on top of you already did. That can get very annoying especially for time purposes but last I brought this up I heard they are looking into fixing this problem. Other than that the course was great. The curriculum was very in-depth to help understand the particular subject. It has modules to read, videos to watch, and workshops to do to help solidify what you learned. Hope this review helps with your decision process of taking this course.

Overall, I can genuinely say that I had a great time while enrolled at Thinkful (Bloc was acquired). I used to be in Customer Success/Experience with early-stage startups and although I've been exposed to working in tech, there was still so much to learn about UX/UI Design. Curriculum: Bloc/Thinkful had won me over with its reasonable price and robust curriculum. A lot of other bootcamps during the time that I was researching didn't offer to teach frontend fundamentals and Thinkful did. In addition to this, I liked the idea of it being self-paced which meant that I could finish earlier than the ideal time frame (they gave me a 12-month timeframe but I completed the program in 6 months). The reading materials are easy to understand and follow. They also provide video for some of the modules which was perfect for me since I learned by following. Links to external resources have also been great to have (and I still find myself referring back to some of them) and are plenty. You'll also receive guidance throughout the program in the form of a mentor. I think that this was incredibly important toward my growth as a designer. Luckily, I had 1 mentor, Mike Dekker, from start to finish (I've heard horror stories from others that they've had to switch or weren't happy with the ones they've been assigned with). Mike's someone who I thought was so inspiring and incredibly helpful - I mean, the guy's got around 14-16 years of UX/UI and illustration experience so it was great to have him teach me neat tricks and learn about the "real world" through his stories. That being said, the program is not a walk in the park and you really have to put in the work. If you're the type of person who relies heavily on collaboration and hand holding, this program may not be for you. Although I did have a wonderful mentor, our meetings were limited to 30 minutes per week. Though Thinkful offers design critique sessions, workshops and technical coaches, I know for a fact that I still had to do a lot of self-study and research. Again, there's nothing wrong with wanting to learn from a teacher you see regularly and having content/instructions handed to you but it's crucial to know what you're getting into at Thinkful and if it fits your learning style. Career Support: Just like the curriculum, I hit the jackpot again when I got Elyse Yarnell as a career coach. She taught me additional things that the job hunt portion of the curriculum didn't tackle and was really supportive through the entire job hunt process. I feel that Los Angeles is a tougher environment for junior designers so it meant a lot to me to feel like I had someone cheering me on and giving me advice. Areas of Opportunity: I think that the experience would've been even better if Thinkful can find away for future graduates to be a part of some sort of remote internship since I feel that this would increase the student's chance of gaining employment faster after graduating. Tech coaches and graders could definitely improve by maintaining consistency in the way they grade projects/assignments and answer students through the Slack channel (I've found that some are on it and points me the right direction and others just question me and go around in circles). Last but not the least, I think that they should set expectations for students. I've found that a lot of students drop out because they aren't aware that the program mimics what is out there in the real world (no one really holds your hand and you have to seek answers for yourself). If this expectation is set clearly, it'll help filter students who are willing to put in the work and self-study and drive students who aren't willing to do so to another bootcamp that offers in-person teaching and immediate assistance.Wrap-up: It took a while for me to get a job since I had several hiccups (personal reasons + the pandemic) but I recently accepted a position as a UX/UI Designer. We're going through such strange times that it feels odd to feel ecstatic but I don't feel guilty for saying this - I'm so happy to have gone through this experience with Thinkful and owe so much to my mentor, graders and coach for getting me to where I am today. 

Thinkful is a great way how to change your career within less than a year. I have quit my full-time job, found a part-time job and started Product Design Flex.

The curriculum includes the whole process that every UX/UI Designer should have. From research to code. You get a mentor session twice a week with a senior designer. 7-day week support on slack in case you are stuck in your projects. Thinkful also offers multiple online workshops every day. After you graduate you get a coach that supports you while looking for a career.

The most valuable thing for me was a relationship with my mentor. He helped me to build my confidence in talking about the industry and being able to talk about my projects out loud and receive feedback. He also provided a lot of extra resources, such as books, podcasts, events and people in my area. 

Thinkful was an incredible experience! I was offered a UX/UI position before graduation. 

I'm a little more than halfway thru my Product Design Flex bootcamp. Thinkful does a great job with the curriculum and teaching the fundamentals, and then portfolio-creation, but what I've been benefitting from the most are the resources and the support. They have one-on-one technical mentorships with working professionals, online groups, slack support, and student discussion threads. Then they have a program manager that basically acts as your coach to ensure you graduate and job seek on the planned timeline. Anytime you feel stuck in the process, there are a team of people there to help you. 

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 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!