Protect your data
We use cookies to provide our services, improve the user experience, for analysis and marketing purposes. By giving your consent, you also agree that your data may be transferred to the USA by the use of cookies. You can revoke your consent at any time. You can find further information in our privacy policy and cookie policy.
Bloc is now Thinkful
As of 2/4/21, Bloc is now Thinkful; the curriculum and community will not change.
If you graduated from Bloc prior to Feb 4, 2021, please leave your review for Bloc. Otherwise, please leave your review for Thinkful.
To view updated and accurate information, please visit the Thinkful Course Report page.
Bloc is an online coding bootcamp that incorporates 1-on-1 mentorship to prepare each student for a career as a professional software engineer or UX/UI designer. Bloc's apprenticeship approach is tailored specifically to each student's learning needs. In the Web Developer Bootcamp, the curriculum is centered around frontend JavaScript and students can choose whether to learn Ruby on Rails or server-side JavaScript with Node. Bloc’s project-based curriculum is written by expert curriculum developers and vetted by their advisory board comprised of hiring managers. Students work with mentors 1-on-1 to clarify concepts, pair program, and build a portfolio of sites that will demonstrate job readiness as a professional software engineer. Not everyone can quit their job or move to a new city for a bootcamp, so Bloc has designed a comprehensive bootcamp with this in mind. Students can enroll full-time, or complete the program at a part-time pace. Bloc also offers 80 hours per week of real-time access to an experienced developer to answer any questions students may have.
No prior development experience is required to enroll in Bloc, but a strong desire to learn and take on challenges will be important in each student's success! Bloc has a 100% acceptance rate, but is looking for students who are driven, hard-working, and ready to learn.
Career readiness is important to Bloc- their flagship Track programs include job preparation material and career prep workshops. Mentors will help students put together a portfolio and prepare technical interview questions. When ready, students work with the Career Support team to navigate the job search process with an individualized game plan and exposure to Bloc's Employer Network.
When I signed up for Bloc's Front-End Dev Course, there were so many good reviews here on Course Report, I thought it must be due to having an amazing curriculum. Having been through the program, I think what's actually happening is that whenever they send feedback surveys to enrolled students they look for respondents who are having a 100% positive experience, and just invite those students to post here.
Most of the students with whom I spoke in the program were disassistfied wi...
When I signed up for Bloc's Front-End Dev Course, there were so many good reviews here on Course Report, I thought it must be due to having an amazing curriculum. Having been through the program, I think what's actually happening is that whenever they send feedback surveys to enrolled students they look for respondents who are having a 100% positive experience, and just invite those students to post here.
Most of the students with whom I spoke in the program were disassistfied with Bloc, many quite upset at the poor program design.
I recently finished the Bloc curriculum and am now setting up to look for work. I cannot believe that they expect us to feel ready to apply for jobs at this point in our development.
The curriculum appears to be largely designed to ship you through as fast as possible so that you have a cookie-cutter portfolio (your portfolio will likely look exactly like what all the other students' portfolios look like) and try to rush you into a job. Hopefully, in the job, you can get paid to keep learning...
If you're already living in a major metropolis, this might work? Maybe?
For those of us who are supposed to move to a metropolis, or find work remotely, it's completely unrealistic to think that the skill set we have at completion would be enticing to a potential employer.
Within the curriculum, they are too ambitious with building their own curriculum and don't spend enough time explaining basic concepts. For every idea that they mention, there's dozens that they just throw at you and expect you to "mind read" to understand. For example, the .prototype. and .__proto__. aspects of JS, the GET/POST aspects of HTML, what a Router is, and how to build an app. All of those ideas are just handed to you as a template, with little explanation, and then when you don't understand what's going on later... it must have been you, the student, who just didn't get it.
The latter mentors I dealt with were okay, but I had some big issues with a few of them. One of them skipped meetings and blamed it on me, and another just dumped meeting with me as he was quitting the job. To the administration's credit, they tried to make amends, and I do appreciate that. The latter few mentors I had were quite good, although the weekly meetings were so short, we were always rushing to try to cover my questions.
What would be better is if they stopped trying to write their all of their own curriculum from scratch, utilized some quality textbooks to get some basics down, and then used the freed time that would allow to restructure their curriculum. They should instead focus on getting students to be able to conceptually repeat basic concepts without having to read instructions or follow step-by-step tutorials. They really need to hire someone with a master's degree in curriculum/instructional design.
Since finishing, I've had to buy three textbooks and three Udemy courses, just to put together my first self-created portfolio piece. It took an extra two months of full-time (40+ hrs/week) individual study just to put together a basic web app, and I'm not sure that Bloc's curriculum was all that helpful.
The only thing that really was helpful from Bloc was to get an idea into current practices, and get an overview of the topics we're supposed to cover.
Is that worth the $8K/9K that they're asking.
No. No, no, no, no, no.
Here's all you really need to know: If you're doing JavaScript for the front end, there's a few topics you need to cover.
Study basic JavaScript. Just get your hands on lots of textbooks and go through them from front to back.
Then, once you've got basic JavaScript down, there's a few routes you can take. There are different aspects to the "front end" of development, and they tend to fall into acronyms for whatever you specialize in.
MERN is a popular one. It stands for MongoDB (a database system that's fairly popular, as it doesn't use the complicated SQL language), Express.js (a framework that goes between Mongo and Node), React.js (a framework that is active within your browser, helping you see things quickly), and Node.js (the JavaScript-built framework that helps you interact with your database).
There's also PERN, where the P stands for PostgreSQL. This is gaining in popularity, as MongoDB is universally hated in the development world, despite its usefulness.
If you just go through Amazon text books, Udemy courses, Lynda.com, and then go to intermittent workshops every now and then to get feedback from experienced professionals, I honestly think you'd get the same result, but without having to shell out thousands of dollars.
Another thing worth mentioning: The gold rush for web and front-end development is kind of over. The industry is now overloaded with cheap talent. You can still do it and get paid, but you won't find as many desperate clients as there were several years ago, when all this stuff was built.
If you're looking for a computer skill set that's extremely in demand, you might consider Python and TensorFlow, for their Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning potential. Many of the web coding Bootcamps are now consolidating in the web field, due to the change in the industry, and expanding into the data/machine-learning space.
Good luck!
This program has many positive aspects to it, but there are some realities that I wish I knew before signing up.
Pros: I am very excited with my portfolio. The effort that you put into work, definitely reflects the final outcome of your portfolio. When I addressed my concerns and frustrations, the program coordinators were very accomodating extending my schedule. The curriculum is constantly being updated and is accessible for students after they are finished with the program....
This program has many positive aspects to it, but there are some realities that I wish I knew before signing up.
Pros: I am very excited with my portfolio. The effort that you put into work, definitely reflects the final outcome of your portfolio. When I addressed my concerns and frustrations, the program coordinators were very accomodating extending my schedule. The curriculum is constantly being updated and is accessible for students after they are finished with the program.
Cons: I went through many different mentors and grading team members and the quality varies. Some are excellent and very professional - others had much less to offer in terms of experience and suggestions. Since the program is online, it seems that the coordination is not in sync between the grading team, the mentor, and the slack coaches - so it feels very disjointed and confusing at times. The checkpoints are often set-up in a way where you need to finish one before moving on to the next one. The grading team is supposed to give feedback within 48 hours, but many times for me this extended up to 4-5 days! This was frustrating for me to keep the momentum going, especially since the grading team usually asks for at least 2-3 revisions. I am a good student and always tried my best, so I found this scenario to be extremely frustrating. With a goal of 3 checkpoints per week (while working and studying), this situation was not maintainable when I was waiting so long for feedback.
Final thoughts: I know the program has grown big quickly and it feels to be increasingly disconnected (especially with recent changes). I was feelling lost in a series of checkpoint revisions between mentors, grading team, and coaches, who would say conflicting things then leave me lost until the next meeting or checkpoint revision feedback. I didn't feel like they were fully there and available for me, but rather waiting for the time to be up. Even the slack coaches who were supposed to be available immediately, usually had a whole queue of other students to help and half the time responded with things like "i'm about to clock out! will forward to next coach." - and very often I just left the question.
These are just some things that I wish I knew going into the program because I could have better prepared myself for the experience. I am certainly surprised by all the solid 5 star reviews - and I do recall being asked to leave feedback about 1 week into the program before I had the full experience of it - so take the other reviews with a grain of salt! I suggest researching deeply into the various programs before choosing, so you make sure that you join a bootcamp with the cirriculum and support system that you can thrive in.
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 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'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 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. There are plenty of books and articles on the subject, so 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.
Employed in-field | 75.0% |
Full-time employee | 52.5% |
Full-time apprenticeship, internship or contract position | 22.5% |
Short-term contract, part-time, or freelance | 0.0% |
Started a new company or venture after graduation | 0.0% |
Not seeking in-field employment | 0.0% |
Employed out-of-field | 0.0% |
Continuing to higher education | 0.0% |
Not seeking a job for health, family, or personal reasons | 0.0% |
Still seeking job in-field | 25.0% |
Could not contact | 0.0% |
How much does Bloc cost?
Bloc costs around $9,600. On the lower end, some Bloc courses like Web Developer Track cost $8,500.
What courses does Bloc teach?
Bloc offers courses like Design Track, Web Developer Track.
Where does Bloc have campuses?
Bloc teaches students Online in a remote classroom.
Is Bloc worth it?
The data says yes! In 2019, Bloc reported a 0% graduation rate, a median salary of $62,400, and 75% of Bloc alumni are employed. The data says yes! In 2016, Bloc reported a 41% graduation rate, a median salary of $65,411, and 80% of Bloc alumni are employed.
Is Bloc legit?
We let alumni answer that question. 477 Bloc alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Bloc and rate their overall experience a 4.61 out of 5.
Does Bloc offer scholarships or accept the GI Bill?
Right now, it doesn't look like Bloc offers scholarships or accepts the GI Bill. We're always adding to the list of schools that do offer Exclusive Course Report Scholarships and a list of the bootcamps that accept the GI Bill.
Can I read Bloc reviews?
You can read 477 reviews of Bloc on Course Report! Bloc alumni, students, and applicants have reviewed Bloc and rate their overall experience a 4.61 out of 5.
Is Bloc accredited?
While bootcamps must be approved to operate, accreditation is relatively rare. Bloc doesn't yet share information about their accreditation status.
Just tell us who you are and what you’re searching for, we’ll handle the rest.