Bloc

I'm a little over a month into the Software Development Track at Bloc, and it has honestly exceeded my expectations. Coming from a non-tech background, I was nervous that I'd find myself way over my head and constantly stressed out trying to learn the fundamentals of development. The program, however, is terrific for career-changers. They start at the most basic level and walk you through everything you need to know in a comprehensive and efficient manner. It's been said before, but the mentorship is definitely the highlight of the program. Having an expert to walk you through problems when you're stuck or challenge you when you're feeling overly confident makes all the difference. Overall, I'd recommend this program to anyone looking to break into the development world, and particularly to those who are self-motivated and thrive at independent learning.

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I am new to Bloc and so far my experience has been really smooth. I chose the 20 hr per week track and was unable to do that many hours do to my long hours at work. All I did was inform my mentor and he easily switched me to 12 hrs per week. 

I also had to switch mentors do to a schedule change at my work and they easily transitioned me to a different mentor that matched my schedule. 

Both of my mentors have been great. They have always been there when I needed help and they have always been very patient even though they had to explain things several times to me (because coding was completely new to me).

I understand Bloc is a little expensive but I think it will definitiely pay out in the long run. I will definitely be recommending Bloc to anyone interested in learning to code.

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Right now, I'm in 3rd week and I learned HTML, CSS, & JS. Now in the next week or so, I'm going to be applying my knowledge by creating a similar website to spotify. I am excited and ready to start. Bloc has a mentor-student program where the mentor meets with you certain times per week depending on how much time you are commiting per week. I'm committing 15 hrs/week so my mentor meets with me once per week and asks me if i had any questions as to what I've learned prior or we start brainstorming over how we can accomplish the course by doing a side project. Doing a side project while learning is fun because you eventually apply the fundamentals into the side project which becomes more motivating since you are actually doing something that you want to do and is fun. 

My mentor has been very effective in answering my questions even when I didn't get it after he explained it a few times. I don't think there was a point where I left off confused. When he meets with me, he goes beyond 30 minutes and we cover everything that I wanted/expected to cover from the past week. My mentor has never missed a meeting even when I thought that it would be a waste of his time, he still insisted that we should meet and brainstorm on project ideas and figure out how to start. I would definitely recommend my mentor to other bloc students.

He is very enthusiastic and is willing to help the students understand the topics. Of course, prioritizing the bloc program is up to you, if you really want to learn web dev/software/ux/ui, bloc is the way to go. Without the support/mentorship, all the things I've learned over the past 3 weeks would have taken a little more over a month. And since I'm in the bloc program, I get resources to other software frameworks and developments. I'm very satisfied with bloc because it provides an expansive curriculum for a beginner who's new to web/software development. 

As for the job department, even though I tended to avoid the jobs part, my mentor kept pushing to do the jobs to find each job under a vertical industry and to figure out what type of job would be a good fit for me. It's still too early for me to pick a job at this point, however, I've learned a lot more of what employers are looking for when I start this early, then I know what I've to focus on. 

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I'm about 25% of the way through my Bloc course and I couldn't ask for anything better. I've worked in technology for years and also done a lot of self-directed study, but one of the best things is being able to build things as you learn. Previously I'd been in a unique situation of knowing how some programming concepts work, and understanding some of the syntax, but not really knowing where to start when I set out to build a real thing. Bloc has taken care of all of that. My mentor is great and most of the other mentors in the program are available for questions as well; our conversations range from assignments to best practices to interview tips and practice. Everyone on the staff of Bloc has been immensely helpful whenever I have a question about curriculum, schedules, or requirements. The program requires a good deal of focus and self-discipline, because you're working remotely without a teacher over your shoulder, but if you're looking for a way to get into a development career without uprooting your life for a full-time, on-campus bootcamp, Bloc is the way to go. 

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I enrolled in Bloc's UX/UI Design Fundamentals program. I was debating between this program and the designer track course since I was making a career switch (from Business Development for a SaaS company). However, after doing a bit of research and speaking to one of Bloc's advisors I elected to go with the design fundamentals course. I am so happy with my decision! The course has a great curriculum and you are able to develop a solid understanding of UX/UI. You start off with your first project pretty fast, and your mentor is there with you along the way. One of my favorite parts has been to be able to present your work every week to your mentor and discussing it.

You also get to develope a solid portfolio that you can present when you start your job search.

I've already landed a product management internship :) I'm so happy with my decision, Id reccommend Bloc to anyone.

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I came into this with very little experience with coding.  I have worked in some form of customer service my whole life but always wanted more tangible skills.  I spent some time researching boot camps and ultimately decided on Bloc because of the mentorship part of it.  I am loving it so far!  My mentor is awesome. He both pushes me and encourages me and is always available when I need him.  The curriculum is great as well. You are given enough to point you in the right direction and then challenged to finish things on your own.  I am very happy about my decision to attend Bloc and I can't wait to see what I can build by the end of the program!

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I'm currently a student at bloc in the part time web developer track and I'm loving it! I came into the program with some programming knowledge, so far (I'm about 6 weeks in) I feel as though my mentor and everyone at bloc really wants me to succeed. My goal in finishing this is to change careers and from day one they are helping you with that. I also work anywhere from 24 - 48 hours, and the 20 hour time commitment has been more than manageable. I've already learned so much and I love having a mentor I can contact if I get stuck. I'm so glad I started this journey with bloc and I can't wait to see where it takes me

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I'm currently taking the Software Developer track and I must say that I am having an amazing journey so far. My mentor answers all of my questions and guides me in the right direction to whenever I'm not fully grasping a concept. I could honestly say that I have learned a ton already and can apply my knowledge to have a technical conversation with other developers/engineers. 
Its okay to seek additional help and if nothing is fully connecting, this is where your mentor comes into play. I like the fact that there are several tests, a checkpoint where a different mentor will ask you questions based on what you've learned, checkpoints that get you prepared for a job search and that its project based. 
My mentor encourages me to get involved and attend meetups to network with other developers. There's a whole slack community dedicated for Bloc students to network and seek help.
All in all, I really enjoy the program and the Bloc community. 

 

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Just a little bit about myself so you can understand why I am writing the review as it is. I am married over 40, with a Full-time job and some other responsibilities. Since I got out of the Military my career prospects haven't been what I want for a good work/life balance, so I decided to start out on a new career branch. I had previously gotten an 'Occupational AA Degree with Computer Networking' from a Trade school and knew I liked Computer field, just not the hardware portion of it.

Now onto the training stuff. I, like many other people, have used the usual ‘free’ courses on the internet along with some paid courses like Treehouse, Codecademy, Codeschool, Khan, etc. They are pretty good for self-learning the basics but it seemed to me that's all you could get. I won’t denigrate anybody that can actually use these to build a career. It just wasn't for me in fact, I would give you applause.

It’s as if the bridge from Basics to Intermediate “I can build something” was missing for me and I needed to find something else.

After close to 2 years I had to ask myself;

• Do you want to keep sitting on that chair looking up information, doing tutorials that seem easy and doesnt really let you do anything significant?
• Or do you want to get off your duff, take the leap, and start to learn something that you,
  1. Honestly like to do
  2. And can see yourself doing for a career well into retirement?

After sifting through course reviews and deciding between 3 different programs I decided to go with Bloc with the Web Developer track.

The condensed course structure, ability to do this completely online with a flexible schedule and challenging coursework that makes you actually search for an answer instead of handing it to you is awesome.

Best part is a Mentor, I feel like I hit a jackpot with mine. Always responds quickly with informative questions to my questions that makes me think differently and approach a problem from a different angle. Mentor meetings have helped let me ‘talk’ through code which has helped even more.

I am not finished with the course yet but as far as I am concerned it is worth the money and time and I recommend it highly.

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I am currently half way through with Bloc's UX/UI program. My experience so far has been great. I got to know about bloc through Quora. I do not have any formal background in design but I can see myself looking at subtleties of design in all things now.

  My mentor Sharon is very helpful. At this stage I require a lot of feedback and I get a lot of answers for my all design related questions. She is prompt and has created a great rapport with me. I trust her and find her critique on my design problems very helpful.   Bloc is more of a self learning experience. Knowledge is limitless and bloc offers a  lot of resources. It basically gives more structure and more organization to what needs to be learned.    I have not used the Career Support as yet but I expect it to be helpful. Even, their operations team were very prompt and helped me with switching my program from the fastest pace to the medium pace.    My main aim is to create a portfolio. I am currently working on a project with my mentor and I expect by the end of this course I will be able to complete at least 4 projects.    I would definitely recommend bloc to all my friends who are self starters and want to learn new skills.  

 

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Bloc was an awesome choice for me. I feel 100% more confident with rails than I did before.

To be clear: it's not like you can't learn yourself what Bloc is teaching you.  You can.  But, you will probably be trying to learn a bunch of other (maybe pointless) things along the way.

Bloc clearly puts a lot of effort in their curriculums and making sure you learn the skills that are not only current with the times but are focused on getting you a job.  With Bloc's curriculum, you end up *kind of* learning things on your own, but there is tons of value knowing that you are learning what you need to learn.  And if you get hung up on something, it's not long before your next mentor call who can help you get back on your feet.  By the end of the course, I felt way more confident with my programming ability.

Bottom line: If you are already somewhat of a self-learner, but want to maximize your time learning (and skip the fluff), go with Bloc. 

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My experience at Bloc was amazing. I just finished my UX/UI program and I couldn't be any happier. Having a mentor with a vast experience in the field allows you to focus on the things that really matter. My mentor was super helpful and pushed me to go beyond my skills.

Bloc is project based, so you get to have several projects to show in your portfolio at the end of the program. The courses are well done and easy to follow. 

I'm getting ready to enroll in another program next year. 

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Ok! This is a real experience at Bloc. 2 mentorship sections per week. 30 minutes for each. Don't expect that your mentor will spend more than 30 minutes to clear your concerns. I rarely got enough attention as my mentors did not have enough time for me. I asked a question. She replied me with a single sentence. Then, I have another question. Then, I waited for one or two days from the mentor to answer my question. For each, project, you need to go through each checkpoint. Sometimes, that checkpoint is not necessary to push to git hub as it is very little change. Mentor asked you to update, make new branch, and push your code to that new branch. Then merge them to master. One project has at least 10 checkpoints. So, you spend times playing around with git hub. Career support is not helpful at all. I rarely got notifications of career support sessions. I checked my inbox and spam, I did not get any notification from career support team for any upcoming sessions. They said, 'Guarantee Money Back' if you cannot find job within 6 months. Don't trust. Something can be happened during the program. You might end up dropping out because of unsatisfication. They will took your money based on how far and time you go within the program. I registered into this program because I expected that I would get answers to my questions if I got stuck in coding. But, it is time consuming waiting for your mentor. They are judgmental. They said most mentor has experience in programming 10 to 15 years. That's not true. Most of the mentors are only having 2-3 year experience in programming. Those of them are our alumni who took WD at Bloc. Don't waste your time in online program. If you really want to code and become a real programmer, you should go to on-site bootcamp. Then, don't expect that you would become a professional Web developer. Graduation from those bootcamp is just a beginning of your journey. Read less

I am currently in Week 8 of the program. Overall, I am very satisfied with the program considering all of it is down online. So far the curriculum layout provides a nice balance between being easy to follow along, providing some challenging exercises and getting to choose interesting projects for your portfolio. There are often a lot of great resources added to each section to expand on the topics covered and workshops to provide supplemental material. With this in mind, the curriculum does not hold your hand and it is not meant for those that need someone telling you how to do something every step of the way. It will help you start thinking like a developer, utilizing the power of the Google and many other resources.

One of the things that I struggled with other online courses is that I didn't have someone to often ask questions and check my work. One thing that makes Bloc a bit different from some other online courses is that students are all paired with a mentor that they get to pick from before they start. Rather than get matched with one, students get to pick a mentor that may have a background that is similar to what they are looking to get out of the program. My Mentor, Brian, has been a big help for me when I am struggling with a particular topic. It is great to have someone that has been in your shoes before and is really there to help you succeed. During our weekly check-ins, we cover any obstacles I ran into through the week and often go into discussions about some coding best practices or about some interesting projects to explore. 

I recently took my first progress assessment. These assessments are spaced through different sections of the curriculum and is meant to simulate a technical interview while reinforcing your knowledge of the subject you just covered. The assessment was a great way to get feedback and help me refocus on particular topics.

In terms of job assistance, the program interspaces checkpoints that get students to focus on a specific vertical and provide some advice on how to network and find jobs within these verticals. As there isn't specific 1-1 career guidance in this section, it's something that I hope Bloc may be able to support in the future. I marked it as N/A since I haven't completed the program yet. While this isn't quite an option yet, Bloc has a great community of alums and mentors that are often active on the community Slack and are willing to provide some advice.

All in all, I would highly recommend giving it a shot and at least getting in touch with one of their student advisors to see if it would be a good fit for you. 

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I've been a web developer for 16 years, professionally for ten. I'm currently in Bloc's UX Design fundamental, and a  friend is a full-time software engineering mentor at Bloc, so I get a lot of insight into the program that others may not.

What sold me on Bloc is the dedicated mentor that you get. I'm on a slowest pace, but still get dedicated 1:1 time every week and have never felt rushed, despite being at the "lowest tier". Choosing one was hard, but it is nice to know that you can request a different one should things not work out with your current one (personalities don't mesh, time slots don't line up, whatever).

Bloc's project approach is also something that won me over. After the fundamental lessons, you get to choose from a handful of different projects to take on (or do them all, if you have the time - which I would highly recommend). I feel like these are as close to real world experience as you're going to get, short of having an actual client throwing the work at you. I am not saying this is unique, but when you combine it with having a dedicated mentor, *it is invaluable*.

Finally, it is going to challenge you. They will not do the work for you. My friend is one of the brightest and most talented developers I know, and he was required to go through the software engineering projects just like a student before becoming a mentor, and he still enjoyed it.

Besides, if you discover you do not like it, they do have a refund policy, which was another draw for me.

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Bloc has been a very rewarding experience so far. I am currently enrolled in their Web Development track (9 weeks into a 54 week program).

The initial stages of the Web Development track used to rely heavily on the codeschool courses but they have now developed their own platform to deliver the fundamental courses. If you've ever done any Codeschool work, you will have an idea of what the course will be like early on (web course instruction and code challenges to practice the skills taught).

I have been in the course 9 weeks and now it's starting to get beyond the early, fundamentals of HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Ruby, and t's really challenging me.

The best part of Bloc's curriculum so far is having a mentor who is able to help you with challenging aspects of code, and who helps keep you motivated when things get challenging.

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I'm currently enrolled in the Software Engineering Track (recently renamed "Software Developer Track") and so far, the program has exceeded my expectations. By far! I spent quite a while researching coding schools this year and in the end, Bloc was the best fit for my situation.    1. I wasn't in a position to return to school full-time, much less relocate across country for a bootcamp, so I knew I would need a fully-online course of study. That narrowed down the list quite a bit.    2. I'd been looking primarily into Full Stack programs because I wanted exposure to as many programming languages as possible. When I came across the SE Track at Bloc, I was immediately interested in the idea of learning CS fundamentals along with FS skills.    3. I work FT and PT to pay the bills, so I needed a program that was flexible. Bloc offers a few program paces which can be adjusted during your track if needed. So if you have unanticipated life events, you can work around it without derailing your studies.    My reasons to enroll aside, Bloc has been a wonderful experience so far. The course materials are well-organized, thorough, and challenging. I can't believe how much material I've covered since starting the program! Working with a mentor has been more valuable than I could have imagined and now I understand why people rave so much about it. My mentor is knowledgeable, responsive, and always willing to answer my (many) questions.    I was a bit apprehensive about starting down this career path. Coming from a non-tech background, it felt like jumping into uncharted waters. But I have no regrets---other than wishing I'd discovered Bloc sooner!  Read less

Hi, I'm a design student at Bloc so a little different from all the other students on this thread commenting on the developer programs. But in case anyone out there is interested in design, here are the top 3 reasons why I personally chose Bloc:

1) Mentorship. I believe the most effective way to learn is by interacting with someone considered an expert in the field. Mentorship works. I'm a former Navy pilot and learning from a more senior pilot was the best way to develop my skills. Basically the process goes like this: Brief – Fly – Debrief.  Bloc’s mentorship program essentially works the same way: Learn – Do – Feedback.

I picked up a lot of valuable resources that my mentor personally uses.  My mentor has been great for learning and discussing real design practices, theory, industry language, as well as focusing my learning efforts.

Experiences with mentors will differ from student to student, but if you communicate your expectations early, Bloc will pair you up with the best one. And if it doesn’t work out, you can ask to switch. But in general, the mentors at Bloc are awesome!

2) Structured Program. Sure, one can argue that there are tons of free online courses floating around. But do you know which courses are most aligned with the tools and skills relevant to the job you want? Because I didn't, and I didn't want to waste my time blindly coming up with my own program.  Additionally, one of the most valuable things that Bloc offers is helping you build a portfolio of projects.

3) Schedule Flexibility. I recently moved from Washington state to San Diego while working on lessons at the same time. I made the move with the encouragement of my mentor.  My mentor recommended attending meetup groups and building my network while in the early stages of the program (see mentorship mentioned in bullet #1).

I attended my first meetup group in San Diego where I met senior designers who recommended having a portfolio to apply for jobs (see portfolio mentioned in bullet #2). As I build my portfolio, I now have new contacts who can help critique and share my work, and are a great source for job leads.

To find out the difference between the Design Track vs UX/UI design fundamentals: https://blog.bloc.io/designer-track-vs-uxui-design-fundamentals/

Hope that helps!

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I've been working as a project manager the last three years for a call center, assisting groups to enhance current applications and develop new programs.  I work closely with developers and development managers on a daily basis and became more interested in the programming side within the last 6-12 months.  I've grown a little tired of what I do and decided it was time for a change.  

I knew that a four year university to get a degree in CIT or another related track wasn't an option.  The cost of tuition for a bachelor's degree is outrageous and quitting my job and going to school full time isn't possible when you have a mortgage and a kid on the way.  I needed a way to gain the knowledge in a structured manner and in a reasonable amount of time, at an affordable price.  So glad I found Bloc.

Bloc offered everything I needed, packaged into a great product that was hard to pass up.  I elected to take the slower track (12 hrs per week) as I still work full time and need a life outside of work/Bloc.  I'm still able to work as much as my time permits, sometimes 15-20 hours in a week.  My weekly meetings with my mentor are always constructive and he's available throughout the week should I have any questions or hit any roadblocks.

Bloc is challenging and you'll get out of it what you put in.  The first phase was very demanding while learning JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Git and Command Line.  Right now I'm in phase two, where I apply the concepts I've learned to build a website.  The career prep is also very helpful and built so that you'll be in the best position to land a job right after graduation.  So far, I'm loving the experience and I'm so glad I found Bloc.

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I would like to say that although the Bloc Full-Stack curriculum was extremely challenging, it was truly a rewarding experience. My mentor, Tim, and I met twice a week, and it was in these meetings that I had the opportunity to ask any questions that I wanted to ask. Not only did we cover the topics presented in the comprehensive curriculum, but I also had the chance to ask for advice in building my own web application. This was invaluable. Tim would even carve out time on the weekends to go over more advanced topics with me if I needed clarification. 

  The Full-Stack curriculum is awesome because by the end of it, although you don't know everything about web development (who does?), you have a high level overview of what is involved in building modern web apps.   That being said, you get out of the course what you put into it. If you dive into the extra credit and really utilize the resources Bloc provides for you, including your mentor, you will truly benefit.   No prior experience building web applications is necessary, as the curriculum starts with the basics of programing. However, I would recommend it. The program can be quite intensive, and a lot of ground is covered.   The course starts with the fundamentals of object oriented programming and the Ruby programming language, then dives into building web applications in Ruby on Rails. This was my absolute favorite part of the course, as you get to build a Reddit replica, and see what all goes into creating a web application.    Topics covered in the back-end portion of the course (the first half) are programming in Ruby, building web apps with Ruby on Rails, testing with RSpec, and building APIs in Rails.    The front-end portion of the course (the second half) covers the fundamentals of programming in Javascript and introduces you to building single page apps in Javascript/jQuery and AngularJS.    Overall, it was a tremendous experience, and I would recommend to anybody who is on the fence. Now that I have finished the Bloc curriculum, I have the skills required to build whatever I can imagine.    #hacktheplanet Read less