Chegg Skills Reviews
Page 14
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Elisabeth Miller
Thinkful full stack review
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I have been in Thinkful’s fullstack flex bootcamp for about 3 months now. So far I am impressed with the content and the interactions I’ve had in the course. The most beneficial part of this boot camp in my opinion, is the one-on-one mentoring sessions. These sessions are twice a week for an hour. These sessions have been hugely helpful for me in understanding the curriculum especially once I began leaning JavaScript. Overall I would recommend the thinkful full stack program for anyone just starting out in web development.
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Achyut Kafle
Great for the motivated data enthusiasts!
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Thinkful offers a month long preparation course which was extremely useful to me to refresh my understanding of fundamental statistics. I had no experience of using Python before joining the program. The prep-course really prepares you for programming skills needed for the main bootcamp. Once you compete the prep-course, you will be assigned a mentor based on your available schedule for two one-hour mentor sessions a week. I am taking this program while being on a full- time employment and the flexibility was the key to me for enrolling in this program. I find this style of 1-1 mentor-student pairing really helpful for my learning style. I feel like there are plenty of resources available online if you want to learn data science on your own but this mentor guidance is the key that I love about this program. I get to talk through the challenges I faced in the course materials or assignments during those sessions. Mentors are really knowledgeable. If they are not expert on some aspects they guide you to great resources. Thinkful also has plenty of Q&A sessions (via video sessions) during the week where you get to ask questions if you are stuck on course materials between your mentor sessions. Thinkful also has a great community of program managers, students and graduates! If you are motivated to learn data science, go for Thinkful!
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Eli Wemyss
FullStack Flex
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I always wanted to do one of these coding bootcamps. I started getting burntout at my current job and did some research and found Thinkful. My overall experience has been great so far. I think what sets Thinkful apart from the rest is its community as a whole. Whether it be online through the Slack channel, locally, 1-on-1 mentor meetings, or Q and A sessions. Being in Portland allows for family dinners which usually involve someone from the local tech scene. Though everything within Thinkful happens online, it's nice to have the support of a local community from other students to your Program Manager.
The only thing I'm not a huge fan of, is how the curriculum is laid out. It's mostly reading, which can be difficult for visual learners like myself. Luckily, there are resources available to help drive home some of the harder concepts. It would be nice to have some videos to go along with the material.
Having a mentor is one of the greatest assets. They are there to get you unstuck and help with any concepts that may be unclear. Everyone at Thinkful genuinely wants you to succeed, and for that I'm extremely grateful.
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Jess T
Phenomenal learning experience
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I entered the data science program with no coding background and have learned more than I ever could have imagined. The curriculum is easy to follow and makes learning fun and relevant. You are paired up with a mentor that you meet with twice a week. Mine is incredibly knowledgeable and always helpful. The Thinkful staff is very responsive, and I feel a sense of community among the students. I highly recommend this program.
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Lynsey
A great choice for a flexible boot camp
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I recently finished my bachelor's in Management of Information Systems after returning to school as an adult. I wanted to make a career change into the tech world and landed in IT and software support but still wasn't quite fulfilled. I wanted a career that involved working on my own projects versus supporting others. After completing a free tutorial on web development I decided to start researching boot camps. Thinkful won because of the mentor program, flexibility, overall ratings, and cost.
I am currently a little over half way done and am so happy with my decision. My mentor has been fantastic and such an asset. There are Q&A sessions every day and a helpful Slack community so I've never gotten stuck for long because I couldn't find help. The curriculum is thorough. I've been really happy with my projects and feel like I'm going to have a good portfolio for job searching. It is a big time commitment, but totally worth it. If I could change one thing I would love to be working part time while doing the program instead of full time. That being said, there are pauses available and it's nice to have a regular income. Overall, I definitely recommend Thinkful. -
Terrance Corley
Full-Stack Web Developer
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I was making the switch from a previous career when I started to research coding bootcamps and I wanted to make sure I picked a reputable one. After now completing the Engineering Immersion program in it's entirety, I can tell you without bias that I made the right choice and I've learned a plethora of valuable tech knowledge in the past 4 months.
I know how hard learning coding can be, especially when self-teaching. I was teaching myself on the side for about two years. The problem with that was that I wasn't growing at the speed I wanted and all the material to learn code is out there on the internet, but it can be difficult to find direction, curated learning, and a personal mentor who has relative experience in the field. Thinkful provides all of this. They even give you access to an entire community of current and previous developers you can network with via Slack.
The tech stack they teach is great, mainly the MERN stack so MongoDB, Express.js, React, Node.js. You also touch on PostgreSQL, mLab, ElephantSQL, data structures, algorithms, HTML & CSS, jQuery, JavaScript, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few. You also learn really valuable skills for potential employers such as test-driven development, project management, agile methodologies, git workflow, and you will have a few team-based projects that will teach you a ton. That's one thing I really enjoyed about Thinkful, the team-based projects simulate how it'll be like working as a developer. There is also an important byproduct that you'll gain during the course, and that's confidence. Confidence to continuously learn on your own after the program and knowing you have the ability to learn any technology. The docs will become your friend.
The only real con to list, and it's not even much of a con, is that in my experience so far I haven't been presented to any employers directly through Thinkful after graduating. I know their employer networks are more developed in certain cities. That being said, I have a personal career coach through Thinkful and she's been great. Gives job leads, resume/cover letter tips, how to follow-up with a job, and if she does come across actively hiring companies in our area she makes sure to tell us about it. So depending on where you are in the states you may not have jobs just presented to you after grad, which shouldn't really be expected though. You will be more than capable of landing a position after grad on your own. I'm not even a month out of graduation and 4 people from my class are already working. I myself have had multiple interviews and I'm still in talks with a couple of companies. Keep in mind, most payment options come with a 6 month job guarantee (at the time of writing). Honestly though, I doubt I would even ask for a refund if I somehow didn't land a job by then just because what I learned in the program feels invaluable.
If you're on the fence I say do it. I'd make sure this is something you really want for yourself, and having a very basic knowledge of HTML, CSS, & JavaScript wll go a long way. If the answer is still yes though, then do it! Thinkful is regarded as one of the top coding bootcamps for a reason and if I could go back I wouldn't change a thing.
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Ellie Grebowski
Worth it for the Career Services
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I spent a lot of time researching bootcamps before finally choosing Thinkful. Having graduated and received a job offer, I am now confident that I made the right decision. The deciding factor for me was Thinkful's job placement statistics and career services support. The curriculum and one-on-one mentoring were also great, but it is the extra services that really distinguish this program.
I enrolled in the 6 month Flexible Program, as I was still working full time for the first several months. I found Thinkful's estimate of 25 hours a week to be fairly accurate in order to graduate on time, especially during the later parts of the curriculum. I breezed through the fundamentals with no problem, but I don't think I would have been able to sustain working full time during the second half of the program (not if I wanted to graduate in 6 months). After a couple months I knew this was the career path for me, so I quit my job to focus fully on web development.
After the initial fundamentals phase (the first month, usually), Thinkful assigned me a new mentor for the rest of the curriculum, as my first mentor was new and only trained for the fundamentals. My second mentor was amazing but tough. It helped to have that accountability, to have to face my mentor and fess up when I hadn't done much work between sessions. He kept me motivated and working hard, and made sure to keep me on schedule so that I didn't have to pay more tuition for additional months beyond the six months I had budgeted. If I got stuck between sessions, I could hop on a Q&A session, happening hourly, to ask another mentor for advice (these sessions are basically open office hours where anyone can get help). In the end I produced a professional-looking portfolio that helped in the job search.
The program itself was great, but the career support is really where Thinkful shines. I met with a career counselor once a week, and she helped with everything from reviewing my resume and cover letters, to networking advice, to helping me send follow-up emails and prepare for interviews. My job search did take longer than a lot of students, and that is partly the tech job market in my city. In certain cities, Thinkful graduates seem to get jobs immediately, and in others it just takes longer. Before enrolling in the program, I recommend asking Thinkful about job placement success in the city you are targeting, as it varies greatly.
Even though I have graduated, I still have access to the curriculum and mentoring through Q&A sessions. Since Angular was much more popular in my area than React (which is the one I originally learned), I asked for that course and worked my way through it while applying for jobs. It was wonderful to still have access to those resources after graduating, and I plan to take more advantage of it in the future.
I highly recommend Thinkful for anyone serious about finding a job in the field!
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Kevin S.
Good Experience
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This program is good for me because i can fit it around my other responsibilities. I did my research before signing up and thinkful was a perfect fit between pricing, time commitment and curriculum. I am about halfway through the program and i love it. I have always been interested in web development and it is nice to go from working full time in sales to learning something where i get to create. The main piece of advice i would give is any potential student should really understand the time commitment required. I put in about 10 hours a day only to find out i need to be putting more time in. There is so much to learn and it is important to really understand complex concepts because typically the next subject builds off of it in some way. My mentor is brilliant and i consider him a friend. The Q/As are very helpful. I am not far enough in the program to speak on the job aspect. It is really incredible, if all works out, how in 6 months someone can change their career trajectory with programs like these.
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Luis Lau
Thinkful - Full Stack Flex
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I am currently a Full Stack Flex student at Thinkful's online program. Overall, I'd the say the program is very well rounded and that it has positively impacted my professional life so far. In this review, I'll give you an overview of Thinkful's FSF course, as well as my experience with each part of it.
- Overview: Thinkful's Full Stack Flex program is a 100% online course centered around full stack web development. which is only half the course; FSF (and other Thinkful courses as well) shines the most when it comes to career building since it is centered around technical knowledge for its own sake. FSF's objective is not only to teach you skills that are valuable in today's market, but also to prepare you for job interviews and professional networking in a realistic environment. To reinforce this, every student has access to their own mentor, who will provide private coaching, which is another selling point for many Thinkful courses. Finally, FSF earned its name because it has a flexible schedule that won't force you to quit your job.
- Program: It takes around six months to graduate from FSF (but you get quite a lot of free additional time for career services). Every month, you will start by reading written material and doing small projects and drills. Every week, you'll have two or three private sessions with your mentor, where you will discuss course material. Near the end of each month, you should be ready to complete a capstone project, which will go through a formal code review. Finally, there are also mandatory mock interviews, where both your skills and professionalism will be evaluated in an emulated professional environment. You will also be assigned a personal program manager who will monitor your performance and make success in the course easier to achieve. Overall, I'd say the program is well paced and not stifling, especially if you already have a job and lack extra time. Although sometimes they take a bit of time to respond, it seems all mentors, program managers and other staff members really pay attention to you as much as they can. If you go without completing a goal for too long, your program manager will send you emails to check you on, which is always a good sign.
- Pricing: Thinkful charges based on how many months you need, which means you will be charged less if you're a faster learner. There's many payment options and I won't explain them in detail here, so check Thinkful's website. However, I will say that overall, the prices are fair and worth it.
- Curriculum: FSF's technical skill curriculum is well rounded, including both clientside and serverside web technologies, all of which are in demand in today's market. Specifically, there are courses in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Node.js, MongoDB, React, user experience, and some computer science, which is great for interviews. Mastery of each of these is necessary to graduate. Capstone projects make a good job of cohesively mixing the technologies you know. The course attempts to have you make useable products as soon as you can, which is a plus. This might be nitpicking, but I don't think the curriculum's written resources are perfect yet. Sometimes I found them to be very brief or abstract and I think some of them could use a rewrite. Fortunately, Thinkful staff seem to be working on improving these resources, and you can leave them feedback whenever you finish a lesson. Something else the written resources might be missing is adding superficial introductions to related technologies, even if they aren't part of the course.
- Mentors: You will be assigned a personal mentor which is responsible for helping you with the technical aspect of the course, and to provide feedback on your work in general. All mentors are guaranteed to be professionals with lots of field experience and I can assure you they are. In many ways, I believe Thinkful's mentor approach is vastly superior to those of other schools. Mentors also make up for anything the written material may be lacking. Mentors other than yours will also host daily non-private questions and answers (Q&A) sessions to provide yet another additional resource. Personally, I don't have my mentor explain the material to me; rather, he reinforces it and provides meaningful insights that you couldn't get from traditional pre-recorded lectures, written resources or even structured classes. Ancillary to this is the fact that your mentor has no reason not to wait for your progress, no matter how slow you are, which means pacing will always work with you, rather than against you.
- Community: As an additional resource, Thinkful provides all students with a Slack community where students and mentors collaborate with each other. If you're an FSF student, working with other students directly is not part of the course, which might be a con for some. The community alleviates this a little, being a good example of going the extra mile.
- Career Services: Finally, the greatest asset Thinkful has to offer is career services. I personally haven't fully gotten to this part yet, but so far career-related interactions have been good. Even before you reach Career Services you will practice with mock interviews. Students who graduate from the main course will have free access to the career services staff, who, according to Thinkful, will help you ace interviews, build your network, and ultimately land a job that takes advantage of the technical skills you picked up.
Overall, I would say Thinkful is a great option for anyone looking to start a career in web development and software engineering. However, I also believe FSF, in particular, is best suited to lone learners like me. I'd say the course's best asset is that it puts you in contact with very competent people who actually have time for you, which provides an unparalleled learning experience.
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Brian Thomas
If you’re have a full time job and have a passion for Software Development..Thinkful is great!!
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I started knowing nothing about this industry but have a passion for creating things and especially technology. I started the 2 week trial where they give you all the normal tools has a full time student but it only last 2 weeks. It’s a great “get your feet wet” opportunity. I’m about 2-3 months into the course out of 6 months, starting on APIs and there will be a lot of times where you will feel very overwhelmed but with the 1 on 1 mentorship and the around the clock Q & A sessions you’ll never feel alone and always have help!
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Corey Highland
A wonderful learning experience!
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The Thinkful staff is quite helpful and my mentor is very knowledgable and quite experienced. After coming from a terrible experience with a different company's course (long story short -I was put in the wrong course, dropped from the program, and then billed for it) I am excited to have the chance to learn relevant technologies in a truly hands on way in the Thinkful "Full Stack Flex" program. My mentor takes the time to answer my questions in our twice a week sessions and allows me the chance to do my work and my research to find the answers before he simply gives them to me. If it is important to you to learn by doing but to have the support necessary to handle those tough questions in the difficult scenarios then enroll in Thinkful.
I look forward to graduating! -
Bryan Spearman
Worth every second and every penny
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Hi, my name is Bryan. I'm 47 years old. I spent well over 10 years of my career in web development building simple info sites and WP sites and basically just taking advantage of the fact that web design was in high demand but the digital iq of clients was quite low.
Then social media hit, then easy site builders came back. The world changed quite quickly. By this time I had hung up web development and moved into management so I let my UI/UX people worry about the tech changes.But along came a life changing/career changing event that left me struggling to find work in management and I decided it was time to go back to the thing I loved more than any other career path: web development.
But the digital world had gone racing by me during my time away from the coding chair and I was clearly not in the 'know' anymore. I needed a hardcore update to my skill set and clearly additional coding skills that I hadn't bothered with in the past because they just weren't a necessity. Or so I thought.So I turned to a bootcamp for this purpose. I did weeks of research and digging to make sure I was not going to fall into something that cost thousands but that didn't help me reach my goal of being back in the industry and very hirable.
Through resources like coursereport.com, forums, reviews, articles and even talking to trusted associates of mine, what I decided on was Thinkful.com. I needed a program that would allow me the flexibility to not relocate in order to take the course and I needed flexibile time because obviously at this age I've got a family and many commitments.
Aside from that I wanted the best program available (if possible). What I learned was that Thinkful's program offered mentorship throughout the educational process as well as long-term support (if needed) after graduation to assist in finding a job.Both of those attributes stood out and in fact did seem to be unique to Thinkful so I began my correspondence with them. They were completely transparent and open about their course, the process, the benefits and even the options that exist outside of bootcamps. I was pleasantly surprised by this and although I was pretty much ready to pull the trigger right there, I continued to ask "what if" questions of my program counselor and she never missed a beat in getting me the answers that I needed/wanted. So after another week of 'cooling off time' to think about the decision, I felt it was my best option and I jumped. Student loan. All in.
Right out of the gate I was given clear guides as to what exactly was going to happen each day/week of the course. I was assigned a mentor and allowed to take part in setting my twice per week, one hour mentor sessions. That for me was just pure gold. I am person that must know what's going on and what to expect without having to go digging for it and Thinkful had that already well thought out and prepared for me. Huge plus.
Next I began the pre-course web basics which I moved through with considerable ease because I had years of HTML and CSS behind me, yet I found the curriculum to be extremely helpful and in fact did expose me to resources and techniques that I had not explored prior. In addition, one of the most valuable attributes of the program for me is that each and every step of the curriculum focues on preparing you for a job interview.
Being in management for many years which at times required me to hire devs, I can tell you this is an outstanding feature of the program. And it's not only training for tech interviews, it's training on interviews themselves! I can't tell you how many people I interviewed that were uber talented but just plain sucked at interviewing. So this feature is awesome in my book. In addition to that, after your final capstone project, you'll work on your resume, social channels, portfolio polishing etc. Again, Thinkful being focued on your professional success after the program is clear and something I value hightly.
Educationally, my first challenge came as the intro to JavaScript began. I'd never coded a single line of JavaScript and was quite nervous that I could fall behind in this section and/or possilby just get overwhelmed and regret my decision to enroll in a bootcamp.
Not the case. I had an unbelievable amount of resources to use for answers/guidance including my mentor which proved to be the most impactful resource of all. Two hours each week with him was like access to a massive trove of knowledge and no topic was too trivial. If he was tied up on our off hours I simply jumped to the Thinkful slack channel where it seems that every mentor stays plugged in to and is ready to help. I can't tell you how many mentors (that aren't my mentor of course) have helped me solve issues with my code. On top of that I attend Q&A sessions each week to either listen in or present an issue I'm experiencing. All three of those resources have been immeasurably valuable.
Fastforward to now, I'm over half way through the program and I have overcome some serious challenges in terms of learning things that I knew nothing of prior, again, thanks to the Thinkful environment. Clearly I'm not suddenly, or about to be, a senior level full stack dev but I can tell you that without this course, the self learn path for me would simply have not gotten me ANYWHERE close to what I know and can do currently.
I would consider myself a skilled web developer again (which is/was a goal coming into this) and most definitely better than I ever was before taking this course. I've still got three months of the program left so the challenges of learning completely new concepts and coding continue but no question, this program has been worth every cent and every second of time that I've spent on it.
If you're on the fence about whether a boot camp is worth it, take it from me (a self-taught hacker that's seen a lot of evolution in web development) this is absolutely a sound investment. Is it the end of the road? Hardly. It's the on-ramp. Albeit, an on-ramp with a jetpack attached but an on-ramp. It takes dedication, hard work, persistence and desire to attain a high level of expertise in this industry but it can be done, and even at my age.
In conclusion I will say that Thinkful (for me) has been an absolute dead ringer. I can and will get where I want to go because of this program and I believe that it has to do with how their program is setup and how it aligned with my learning style and goals.
Hope this review helps someone as I know I needed help in making my decision as well. Good luck!!
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Adriana Suarez
Perfect combination of online lessons and 1-on-1 tutoring
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I just finished the prep course and I can’t believe how much I’ve learned already. So far my experience has been awesome at Thikful. My mentor is a great help. There are lots of Q&A sessions throughout the day so whenever I’m stuck I just drop by and ask for help. I like it that they change the curriculum often to be up to date (yes, I was going through previous material to get ready for my first mock interview and noticed the updates) I’d totally recommend this bootcamp to a friend :)
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Mike Townley
Pounding Sand
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Starting out, you're eased into introductory-level skills that are considered the foundation for later learning. The problem is, those introductory-level skills have no bridge between them and the professional-level cirriculum. There's a lot of referencing students to outside online resources (even Google) to gain a grasp on concepts that should be taught by the instructor.
I was very lucky to already have a working familiarity with HTML/CSS/Javascript and really only needed Node and React skills. The thing is, without strong mathematic prowess and an analytical mind, you will struggle in these courses. No, I'm not saying it can't be done, but these courses are designed to be fast-paced and self-reinforcing. You will rely on instructors, mentors, Slack, and other resources to the point where... I hate to say it, they just quit responding to you and leave you out to dry.
I graduated and was declining offers through Career Assistance. Many of these "Fortune 500" companies are actually contractors looking for cheap contract employees and don't really care about a CS degree. The best offer I had was for $51,600 entry level. I make over $100k at my current job!
Bottom line, they're a business and they're in it to make money. While my experience was mostly positive, I can spot how they prey on people wanting to be these big-shot devs with fat salaries. One gal I knew sold her car just to pay tuition, only to be continually ignored. Another gal was completely blown off by career assistance after graduating. Not good. It's bad enough this field is lacking in diversity, this program didn't help that.
If you're tech-savvy and analytical, this would be a great fit for you. If you're looking to enter as a beginner to development and hope for a larger-than-life salary competitive with a Computer Science Master's degree; think again.
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Shari Hobbs
Excellent Experience
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I chose Thinkful from 3 different schools and the reason it won was the flexibility of the programs offered as well as the service level from the very first email exchange. They made sure that, at every step, I was aware of my status in the program, was still fully satisfied and supported and that I was happy with my experience. I joined the local in-person community since I live in a hub city and also began assisting at the free intro classes and that really helped make my experience a well-rounded one. The caliber of instruction from the curriculum, mentors, and Q&A sessions was high in my humble estimation and the project based learning was a good fit for me. It has also translated well to my first job as a developer. The reputation of Thinkful is the last thing I'll mention here as they have built it in such a way that hiring managers and recruiters were seeking me out based solely on the fact that I had completed the Thinkful program. Overall, I'm so glad I chose Thinkful and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
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Chris Valle
Full Stack Flex review
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I started the full stack flex program at Thinkful with the intention of switching careers to that of a computer programmer/web developer. I had very little knowledge of computer programming beforehand and was looking for a time-efficient way of switching careers while still getting a quality education. I have to say that I am very happy for choosing to study with Thinkful. Being that the course is over the span of 6 months, the program is intensive and challenging, but the quality of education is very good and the resources Thinkful provides are invaluable. The curriculum is thorough and my mentor has been a huge help is helping support my learning when I get stuck.
I also appreciate how honest and straightforward Thinkful was before I started the course. They told me in advance what I could expect and how much time I would have to invest. Instead of just trying to sell the course, they accurately depicted what the next 6 months would look like if I decided to take part in the program. The program also teaches the more in-demand aspects of programming (from what friends already in the field have informed me of) so I am definitely confident this will be a successful yet efficient way of transitioning my career.
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Andrea
Thinkful is awesome. Exceeded expectations
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I've been in the Thinkful full stack flex program for about a couple months now. I researched a lot of 'bootcamps' and programs before committing and couldn't be happier having landed on Thinkful. From the first interaction with people of Thinkful everyone I have worked with (mentors, program managers, other students) has been great. They always engaged with me very positively and on a very individualized, personal level. The curriculum is great so far. I had learned on my own for awhile previously, so the first month was an easier recap and now I am getting into new and exciting stuff. It's a great mix of text based learning and projects. Though parts of the program, like mock interviews and attending meetups, can be intimidating for me, I know they are incredibly beneficial for real world experience.
Mentors and mentor sessions are great. Not only are they nice and knowledgeable but the regular sessions keep you motivated to get work done before each session. It's a good way of keeping yourself accountable for moving forward on the material (something I was struggling with learning on my own). Having all the useful Q and A sessions to access is also great as a back up resource.
What really exceeded my expectations was my local Thinkful community (Portland, OR). Getting to meet with folks IRL on a weekly or more basis has been really positive. I thought a drawback of Thinkful was going to be the it was an "online program" but I couldn't have been more wrong. Mentors and students alike are always offering to meet up and work together. It's been really helpful to have these opportunities to again help with accountability, to learn more, and to foster a network of people in my local tech community.
Lastly, a consistent thread through all of this is that Thinkful is 100% focused on getting students where they want to be...hired. It was obvious that other bootcamps just want to get tuition and churn out students and hopefully keep their stats up and only paying lip service to career help afterwards. Thinkful is not like this. Everything the do from changing curriculum, to networking with local companies, to incorporating mock interviews, to their robust career services is student first focused and I have real confidence that our goals are aligned.
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Tony Thompson
Biggest take-away? Confidence!
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Learning to code for whatever reasons is a daunting task. Its intimidating and super easy to get discouraged especially if you aren't making the progress you assumed you'd have. Thinkful covers all bases for students looking to learn while focusing on a huge piece most other resources fail to aknowledge. Confidence is truly key. Thinkful does a great job exploring this competency by opening the door to an incredible network of alumni and other students who have had similar experiences while also pairing you with incredible mentors who have a clear understanding how to get you to the next level. The curriculum is written incredibly well, the team is inviting with feedback and the people are all excited to not only learn, but to teach. I think theres something to learn here from thinkful when we think about learning to code in todays world.
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Derek D.
Thinkful Graduate
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I have finally graduated from Thinkful's Flex program as a fullstack developer. I am currently in the job search phase for a week and have already connected with several companies wanting interviews. Even though I am not in the largest tech area of the United States I find myself feeling confident moving forward and answering questions without any issue. I feel ready to be a developer and I will forever be in Thinkful's debt for preparing me well. I feel that their mentor program and the support of the program managers cannot be matched and gave me the support I needed to push through even when I wanted to quit.
Thanks Thinkful
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William Park
Outstanding Curriculum and Support
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I have been taking the Full Stack Flex program from Thinkful and I am very satsified with the amount of knowledge, help, and support I have received these past few months. I was very skeptical in the beginning of bootcamps with the cost and all the job guarantee reports that you see, but I can assure you that it was very worth the investment. I think the mentor sessions are what sets Thinkful apart from other bootcamps. You have a mentor who is actually a professional developer in the industry help you and guide you throughout the course and it is very helpful. I am finishing up and I am very excited to start my developer journey through Thinkful.
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Stephanie Joy Chamblee
Full Stack Flex
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I am wrapping up the full stack flex program and have found a lot of value in it. It set me up well to find a job in web development. I spent about 15-30 hours on the course per week and am finishing in 5 months. The technologies are relevent and the curriculum is updated frequently. The slack channel community is helpful in helping out when you are stuck. The Q & A sessions are very helpful. The mentorship model was great to keep me on track. Definately worth the time, money and hard work!
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Dave
Not worth the money
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Thinkful is one of the most expensive bootcamps out there. And naturally, I thought it would be one of the best out there. It also had so many good reviews. Now, I think they remove all the bad reviews and just keep the good ones.
It is definitely not worth the money they ask. The curriculum is not that great and teachers are fine but pacing is just awful. Also, I can not stress this enough. You can not, You can not learn programming and become developer in few weeks. If you put effort and time, you can get same resources provided by thinkful all over internet.
Do not go here.
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Joshua Painter
Full Stack Flex
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I am currently about halfway through the the Thinkful Full Stack Flex Program. This program has been great in developing my skills, knowledge, and confidence as a web developer. I considered doing the Engineering Immersion program and decided on this program after talking to an advisor at Thinkful. I was concerned that there may be a difference in the amount of preparation given by the Flex program versus the Immersive program, but it sounds like the main difference is in the format and structure. I am someone that does well with self-study, so the Flex program made sense for me
The program is rigorous and I’m working full time at it. I would say that there are several modes of learning: written course materials, external resources, embedded examples and exercises, small projects, and large projects. The student dashboard area is clean and pleasant to use. The mentor sessions are helpful in getting technical questions answered, but are also a place I’ve gotten a lot out of asking general questions about best practices and working in the industry. I’ve found the mentor sessions useful as a way to spend time verbalizing concepts and making a connection with someone in the field.
The mock interviews are challenging and are a clever way to present a kind of exam on the last section of material as well as interview practice. It is necessary to have both a thorough academic knowledge of the material to answer interview questions and the coding expertise with it to succeed in live coding challenges.
I’m happy to say that my coding facility and technical knowledge have increased greatly in the course of the program. Also, my confidence in knowing that I’m studying relevant high quality material.
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Maria
It's been great so far!
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I'm currently a student in the Full Stack Flex program, and so far, it's been great! I was first following the self taught route for a few months, but felt like I needed something more structured/guidance. So about three months ago, I started looking into bootcamps, and found Thinkful. I've been in the program for about two months, and definitely don't regret my decision. Thinkful has a great curriculum, you get to practice the skills you learn as you go. It's not easy but not impossible to do either. I've learned so much these past two months. Everyone, from my mentor to program manager, and everyone else I've encountered in the program have been really nice and super helpful. Mentor sessions and q&a sessions have been very helpful as well. There's plenty of resources to take advantage of in case you don't understand something, or want to reinforce your knowledge. It's been a great experience so far, and I would definitely recommend Thinkful to anyone!
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Joshua Stelly
Thinkful has been great (so far!)
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Current student at Thinkful, here. It's been a good experience.
I'm roughly halfway through the Flexible Web Development course. Let me start by saying that the information presented at Thinkful is freely available on the web. By choosing to enroll at Thinkful, you are paying for:
1) A clean and organized presentation of the information, given in an effective order.
2) Mentorship (both 1-on-1, and group session if you choose) by seasoned developers who are familiar with the traps/landmines you're inevitably going to encounter during your journey. They will make the journey much less painful.
3) A program manager who will track your progress and push you to succeed in a timely manner.
4) Access to an active Slack channel with other Thinkful students and developers.
5) Organized events/meetups.
I'm finding #1, 2, and 3 to be most valuable to me. I have a program manager and mentor who keeps me motivated, so I've gotten further than I did with Codecademy. I'm likely to graduate in September 2018.
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Billy Angermeier
Great experience, flexible hours
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I found Thinkful after looking into other bootcamps that I couldn't do with my current job (I work most weekends and sporadically late through the week). I was happy to see there was an option with solid reviews and flexible hours - quality learning experience without having to give up current income. This is a time intensive course, there is a lot of information to take in and retain. I have been very lucky with my mentors and program managers, seems like everyone is there to help out without just handing me answers. It has been a great experience and I truly feel like they want me to succeed, not just pass. I haven't made it to the job support phase yet, but I am looking forward to it. If you can put in the time, this is a great place to learn. Good luck! -
Jake
Great Start to a New Career
Amazing Education:
Super Knowledgable Mentors
Clear, Current, & Comprehensive Curriculum
The community of peer students was also helpful, engaging, supportive & empowering
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Brian
8 Day Job Search
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I received a job offer 8 days after I started my search. Thinkful prepared me very well.
The best part of Thinkful are the people. The mentors and career coaches are fantastic. I had three mentors, and each one was very different. They came from different backgrounds and communicated in different ways. It is up to the student to control these sessions, and if its not working, you may ask for a new mentor.
The worst part of Thinkful is being in the middle of their miscommunication. They have people all over the world supporting you, and they are very bad at talking to each other. I served as the middleman between every project manager and mentor I had. On three different occasions I was left without a project manager or a mentor, and it was up to me to figure out what was happening and to fix it.
The communication problems were very frustrating, but its hard to complain when I got the exact job I had wanted before the bootcamp, only 8 days after I graduated.
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Erica Garcia
Flex Web Dev
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I am currently a Thinkful student taking their Flex Web Dev program.
Before I decided to go with Thinkful, I researched many different programs, both in-person and on-line. Based off all the reviews I read, and taking my own personal cirumstances into account, I came to the conclusion that Thinkful's curriculum and format was the best fit for me. So far, my experience has been overwhelmingly positive and I highly recommend their courses. When it comes down to it, most boot camps cover the same topics with the main difference in experience being attributable to the student's awareness of their preferred learning style and their expectations of the program they choose. Get distracted easily at home? Then Thinkful's online programs may not be for you. More self-motivated and able to stay focused in any sort of environment? Then Thinkful may be a better choice.
Even though Thinkful is online, this is not to say that Thinkful just throws you some BS online materials and doesn't provide you with any support. On the contrary, my mentors have been the most valuable part of this experience and I can't imagine doing this without them. Meeting with a mentor twice a week has allowed me to go through the thoguhtfully scaled curriculum at my own pace, taught me how to teach complicated subjects to myself (an invaluable skill to have as a developer), and helped me to create some really cool projects that I am very proud of (side-note: yes, you are paying to teach yourself the provided materials essentially, but if you're not into that then you probably shouldn't become a dev any way since tech is always changing and you'll be teaching yourself new things for the rest of your career-- might as well learn how to do it proficiently now with the help of a mentor than struggle with it later on). Furthermore, the open Q&A sessions with other mentors for the days I do not meet with my personal mentor have been so helpful so I don't waste too much time on a problem I'm stuck on. This has kept up my morale since learning to code is an inherently frustrating pursuit and anything to keep you moving forward = good.
I do not have much experience with their job assistance, however I find their job-garuntee unique among all the programs I researched. If they didn't believe in their ability to train you properly, they wouldn't promise that, ya know? So far though I've been very impressed and my only bad experiences have come from general over-work that comes with the territory of doing a boot camp.
Bottom line: I would highly recommend Thinkful if you're into a more self-guided, independent approach to learning how to be a dev.
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William Park
Outstanding support and incredible experience
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I am four months into the full stack flex and the journey so far has been amazing. I was very skeptical of bootcamps at first and read a lot of these reviews before I first started too, but after going through the program I can confidently say that Thinkful goes above and beyond your expectations. The program offers all of the material since day one and you can go comfortably at your own pace without the pressure of finishing by a deadline. Of course it's in our best interests to finish quicker when considering tuition costs, but I can confidently say that I have learned so much within these past few months and it has been worth it. The biggest pro of Thinkful in my opinion is the 1 on 1 mentorship. Every week you can schedule a mentor session as much as you need and get help on whatever questions you have. The support is extremely helpful and the staff has been very flexible and supportive. Thinkful has been an amazing experience and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a program that helps you from the ground up. I have built two capstone projects so far and I am excited to finish my last one and start the job search soon. Very excited and grateful for the experience so far!
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Brandon
Modern Practical Training
Not only does Thinkful get you up to speed on the modern technologies quickly but it does it with practical best practices and mentors that have the experience to guide students and keep you on the track to success.
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Sobhit Sharma
Awesome Bootcamp!
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This has been a great journey for me coming from virtually no programming background. The coursework is really good at taking a fairly new topic and familiarizing us and eventually helping us master it. The most vital aspect of this bootcamp is the one-on-one sessions with a personal mentor twice a week, who is a very experienced developer. This really helped me a lot! On top of that, there are multiple Q&A sessions going on during the day with other mentors where you can go in and participate and ask any questions you may have. There are various milestones that you hit during the course and many projects that you create (which eventually becomes your portfolio as well). This really helps you gather whatever you've learned up to that point and make something out of it. That's the best way to learn and remember what you've learned. Also, there are technical evaluations and mock interviews at different stages of the course to make sure you understand the topics as well as prepare you for the real interviews. Also, you are assigned a program manager who can help you with any problems related to the overall program and also keeps track of your progress. The loan options that they provide is also very flexible. The overall community is awesome.
All-in-all, the overall structure of the program is really designed so as to ensure your success. I am really excited and glad that I went with Thinkful!
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Brian Pham
Thinkful - a healthy balance of back-end and front-end code
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In November 2017, I started my Full Stack Flex Course for Thinkful and immediately loved it. I had previous experience in HTML, JavaScript, CSS and flew through the beginning lessons. As the curriculum got more complex, jumping into Node/Express and the Back-end, my frustration definitely grew like it would for any other program. The difference from self-study and studying with Thinkful was the community and the help of a mentor.
A big pro to the Thinkful Online Full Stack Flex Course were the Q&A Sessions that are available to students where staff members have an office-hours type video call where they help out all students who drop in with the questions they have. The staff members were extremely helpful and willing to answers further questions outside of the office hours.
The biggest pro for me was my mentor who pushed me through the program and helped answer questions I ran into along the way. He was able to keep me motivated and to meet with me multiple times a week, which is something I, as a student, definitely needed in my beginning steps. Also, my program manager was able to help by choosing a mentor for me that he knew would fit my preferred style of learning. The staff definitely help to mold the program accordingly for your success, which I greatly appreciated.
With the pros come the cons and one of the biggest cons was the lack of focus on design. This was not necessarily a problem with the program as a whole, but more because there was no time to focus on it with so much time dedicated to the fundamentals of front end and back end code.
Overall, I am currently a few weeks from completing the program and have no regrets in taking it on. I do recommend that those completely new to web development should dedicate more then the recommended 30 hours per week to the program.
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Kat
Great Course
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I am genuinely surprised that they managed to make a developer out of me! I feel the curriculum is not sufficient for someone coming from absolute zero coding background, but they have lots of recommendations and external sources with it. My mentor was brilliant, and beyond helpful at all times, I really enjoyed working with him. I would definitely recommend this course, because of the great deal of support, flexibility, and good quality education.
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Kyle
Setup for success
Thinkful pairs you with an experienced mentor who helps you out every step of the way. In addition, they provide regular QA sessions and slack to get help between mentor sessions. I always felt that there was a path to success so that I kept learning and moving through the program. -
Hadas Ben-Tsur
Independent Study with Plenty of Support
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I'm currently attending the online Full Stack Flex program with Thinkful. I participated in another in-person bootcamp elsewhere and found it really lacking as concepts weren't explained thoroughly and instructors/staff weren't around often enough to help me through tough assignments. So I found Thinkful through Course Report!
At Thinkful the course curriculum is so thorough that I'm able to tackle a good 70% of it on my own. They provide so many additional resources if you want to dig deeper or if you need help understanding a concept. Besides the fantastic material, there are also many Q+A sessions throughout the day. If I'm ever stuck on a problem for more than an hour I hop into a Q+A session and am guided in the right direction. I've been in many of these sessions and interacted with many of the instructors and each one helps put me on the right track without handing me the answer or making me feel stupid for not knowing something. I also have an incredible mentor I meet with twice a week on a video chat where we go over my homework and any questions I have.
There's also a strong focus on job eligibility between mock interviews that are part of your course requirements, career Q+A sessions offered several times a week, and the capstone projects that are great additions to a portfolio.
I'm so grateful to have found Thinkful through Course Report! I find myself facing mental challenges I never experienced before yet it's all good because the Thinkful structure and team is encouraging through every step.
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Eugene Levit
Great Experience at Thinkful
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During my time at Thinkful, I was lucky enough to not only interact with several great mentors, but to also interact with other Thinkful students through our ever-active Slack channel. I learned so much from the people at Thinkful, not just about programming, but how to interact with the developer community, which is filled with so many talented people from all walks of life. I want to thank Thinkful for introducing me to this community, and I recommend anyone interested in Wed Development to sign right up!
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Ethan Zhou
Love Thinkful!
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As a student in high school, I've looked into many options for me to learn web development. Every boot camp, online or otherwise, turned me down except for Thinkful. WIth a simple email and no questions asked, I was allowed to participate in the Full Stack Flex program. Now I'm a month and a half into the course and I absolutely love it. The mentor program is extremely helpful and even in the time between mentor sessions, there is a slack channel open for questions. The course is divided into 6 modules with a final project/capstone and a mock job interview at the end of each one. Everything about the course prepares you to be job ready by the time you graduate. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning about web development.
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John P Quen
Hands on Course
So far this course has been amazing. The quick access to help thru mentor meetings and Q&A sessions make it for me. I have not once been stuck and not been able to get great, quick, in person hands on help. The curiculm is so well laid out and I have been having a lot of fun doing it.
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Kim
Thinkful Data Science Bootcamp
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This course was flexible, convenient, and thorough. The mentor meetings complemented the curriculum and having the mentor to provide in depth perspective and guidance on more technical concepts was truly invaluable. I already had a significant background in Computer Science. The course was flexible enough to get extremely deep in certain topics and touch less on topics I already understood in order to get the most I could out of the course. I learned SO much on the topic of data science and had practical experience that I was able to immediately apply at my job. Extremely worth it!