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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.
I joined the Bloc Bootcamp program in November 2015 to restart my software development career. While I started my career in software development, my path has included time as an IT leader and most recently, client-facing IT project manager. I’ve enjoyed the twists and turns of my career, but found I missed the opportunity to solve problems creatively, using software. It was hacking I was missing.
I joined the Bloc Bootcamp program in November 2015 to restart my software development career. While I started my career in software development, my path has included time as an IT leader and most recently, client-facing IT project manager. I’ve enjoyed the twists and turns of my career, but found I missed the opportunity to solve problems creatively, using software. It was hacking I was missing.
Early in my career, a friend said something to me that has stuck: ”Always keep your toolbox close at hand”. It meant, if you are in a technical role, keep learning new languages and technologies. I tried to stay current through the years but it became more difficult with the demands of managing projects, resources, and clients. So when I decided to leave my position last year (due to personal family matters), I remembered that piece of advice and realized it was time to add some more tools to my toolbox.
Coming from a application development background, I knew I was interested in web development, specifically Ruby and JavaScript. Talking to friends and doing online research, I discovered online coding bootcamps. Given my personal situation, this was the perfect path for me to update my skills - working at my own pace, in my own space.
But deciding to go with an online boot camp is one thing. Deciding WHICH boot camp is a whole other story! Course Report helped with my search. I originally narrowed it down to Firehose, BLOC, Code Academy, and Dev Bootcamp. I wanted more guidance than a self-paced program like Code Academy. I liked Firehose, with their focus on back-end skills and team development. I knew from my own experience how critical these skills are to becoming a well-rounded developer.
In the end, the marketing and promotion quality of Bloc won me over. During a intro to Bloc webinar, one of the instructors said to me, “what is the point of certification? That does not mean much; what counts is building a portfolio of projects on a source repository like Github and showing that to a potential employer. That is a much better way to demonstrate your skills.” With their commitment to education, one-on-one mentoring, and ability to help me build my portfolio, I was sold.
I started the Bloc full-stack course in November 2015 and will be finishing in July 2016. I started with the Ruby on Rails (RoR) track that was followed by the front-end portion. Jon Linowes led me through my Ruby training and John O’Connor through the front-end portion.
I am thrilled with the experiences and knowledge that both these mentors provided. They work with this technology every day and have many many years of experience. They were also a great source of information beyond just “how does this work” or “why isn’t it working”. We discussed things like, “how is this really used in business”, “how did you select that tool”, and so on.
Jon provided solid corrective guidance through code walkthroughs and helped me when I really got stuck. He had a rich set of experience to draw from to answer my questions. I enjoyed his style and in the end he turned me into a real fan of Ruby.
John was a great cheerleader. He made me feel confident in what I was learning and always had suggestions, expertise, and tips to improve my projects. He would often challenge me to add something else make it more fun (albeit more difficult!) He knew I would gain so much by getting stuck and ultimately figuring it out on my own or working together as a team.
If you are looking for a mentor, I highly recommend Jon and John.
Bloc’s online tutorials were excellent. Many times, I could have sworn something was wrong with the tutorial and came to realize I missed something. I believe these tutorials have improved over the past few years after speaking with previous graduates.
Each track started with the basics of the lessons, followed by a complete walk-through of how to build an online application. For RoR it was a Reddit clone and Javascript was an online music player. Much of this training was typing in code into your local development platform and running your tests from there. Next up, you pick several projects they recommend to develop with some general guidance. Creating a capstone project is part of the curriculum, as well as job preparation tutorials. The Bloc mentors conduct mock technical interviews which helped me get comfortable with using tools like CodePen or JSBin to write sample code on demand during a video interview session.
I highly recommend Bloc if you can afford it. It’s pricey, and takes a strong commitment and effort on your part...but it is totally worth it.
Here’s my short list of pros and cons:
Pros
· Online and self-paced within a selected track
· Can freeze the program if your schedule changes
· One-on-one mentoring sessions with a person you choose
· Interactive code reviews using technologies like Screenhero
· Gradual build of complexity
· Focus on building a portfolio of your projects
· Ability to build a capstone project of your own
· Proven track record and many reviews online
Cons
· Not cheap
· The full stack course can be overwhelming as you go deeper into the program if you don’t have a foundation of knowledge and/or background in development
· No paired-programming or sense of working with other student developers but they do have a great development community with learning and connecting with other Bloc attendees
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.
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