Chegg Skills Reviews
Page 19
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Anonymous
Amazing program!
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It's only been a month since I started the Frontend Web Development course but I've learned so much in the past month than just by studying by myself. I learned a few things here and there online about HTML and CSS but Thinkful courses really help you learn it, feel comfortable with it, and create things. For instance, I'm comfortable at making websites and know which resources to look at to learn how to do things I don't know how to do yet. I just learned to use jQuery and learning JavaScript so I can do a few things to make a website interactive.
Not only that but I also get a career guidance counselor, a mentor who I see for 3 hours every week, and a program manager to make sure that my curriculum suits my needs. There's also cool workshops and Q&A sessions to learn more about a particular topic or just ask another mentor at Thinkful questions about your projects. You also have to do 5 mock interviews to make sure you're ready to answer any technical questions that you'll face during your real interviews. All in all, it's pretty awesome!
The community at Thinkful is really friendly and everyone is always ready to help you. I was debating about going to a bootcamp in SF but it's really expensive and even to get in, you basically have to know just as much as a junior developer and I really didn't think I was ready to do that yet. On the otherhand, you can learn through Thinkful at home, get all the support and community at your fingertip and they even help you find a job. I think everyone should at least try it and see for themselves what an amazing program Thinkful is.
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Yon
Thinkful Web Dev Career Path
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Thinkful is the (1) inexpensive, (2) forces accountability with mentor 3x/week, (3) in-depth like on-campus bootcamps.
My mentor, Roberto, is extraordinary. Runs his own businesses with partners, just got accepted into a top program with one of his companies, very knowledgeable, and has offered to make himself available for help even outside our scheduled, 3x-per-week mentoring sessions. He's proactive in helping me figure out solutions to my projects, and always helps me with best practices for writing maintainable code.
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Jon Wade
Thinkful is awesome!!
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I can't rate Thinkful highly enough. I originally signed-up for an 'in-person' bootcamp with Maker's Academy in London, but needed more flexibility in terms of location, times for study and curriculum. Thinkful has enabled me to study when, where and whatever I want. Again, to contrast some other bootcamps who dogmatically stick to one technology (typically Ruby or Python), Thinkful were the only course that would allow me to customise my curriculum to suit my interests and the job market in the UK. As a base, a full-stack JavaScript course, with Ruby as an optional elective. In addition, through speaking to my mentor and having seen a live coding exercise in React, that module was then added into my course as well.
Victor, my mentor, is amazing - he's always on hand to lend guidance and moral support. The other team members I've interacted with are equally enthusiastic and helpful, with real-world advice and experience to draw upon.
Beyond the one-on-one curriculum, there's the opportunity to interact with your peers on Slack and attend group Q&A sessions and other lectures on topics which are connected to your course, again at times that suit you.
If you're looking for the ultimate in flexibility, enthusiasm, and a deeply technical curriculum that really pushes you, look no further than Thinkful.
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Aaron W
Thinkful Python
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I'm happy I finally signed up with Thinkful. The curriculum is well designed. It introduces concepts in a stealthy way so that you don't realize you're working on topics that, relative to the material, are advanced.
Most curriculums will start off with the basics and maintain the same boring trajectory. Thinkful makes it fun.
Finally, my mentor, Nemanja, is top notch. I feel that teaching is taken for granted. Sure, you can self study, but having someone knowledgeable who can point our your blind spots is very valuable.I believe anyone will be challenged to find a great mentor that tailors the curriculum to your needs. I've definitely found that here.
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Dustin
Fantastic!
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Before I used to have trouble getting CSS. After practicing and working with my mentor, I feel confident that I can work with layouts now. Also, JavaScript doesn't seem so scary anymore.
I really enjoyed working with my mentor on the course assignments each week. While I wasn't able to complete the course due to unexpected financial changes on my part, I plan on returning and completing the front-end web development course.
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Alex
Thinkful is great
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I'm just over two months into Thinkful's Front-End Web Development Career Path track, and I have found it to be a very enriching experience. Not only has my knowledge of coding best practices grown, my ability to find information and use it to solve problems has improved. Programming forces you to be analytical and to extrapolate what you learn from others, in order to use it for your own purposes, which is just a generally good skill to have in life, I think.
I find the Thinkful curriculum to be well-suited to my learning style, and the lesson format generally goes like this: there are a few sections of each lesson where you code along to what amount to tutorials, in order to introduce the main concepts of the unit, and then at the end of each lesson (or most of them) you are tasked with incorporating what you've learned into a small project which you then push up to github, and supply the link to your github repository, in order to discuss it with your mentor during the next session. The tutorials are simplified, broken-up versions of what you end up doing in the project-based parts of the lessons, which is good because they give you a groundwork for what will be needed, but then you have to do the extra work to connect the concepts to the actual implementation. Which is really what being a web developer is all about. At the ends of major sections in the coursework there are larger projects where you get to decide what to build (as long as you demonstrate your facility with the required programming concepts), which is cool because if you're motivated enough, you end up with some pretty cool portfolio projects that reflect not only your coding abilities, but your interests as a developer and as a person as well.
Speaking of motivation, that is what it takes to get through Thinkful. Because it's self-paced and entirely online, you have to be your own motivator. You don't have a classroom with a teacher and a big group of other students that you go to five times per week like in-person coding bootcamps. You have to be mostly self-motivated (although having a mentor really helps), and since they charge by the month, it's in your best interests to get on the grind, learn the stuff, and start making killer, production-quality web applications as fast as you can so you can get out there and blow hiring managers' minds with your portfolio.
My mentor, Chad, is awesome. He's a great guy, and very knowledgeable, and has offered to make himself available for help even outside our scheduled, 3x-per-week mentoring sessions (via email for the most part, but once via the provided Thinkful video chat room, which I thought was really cool and nice of him) (also: not sure if other mentors do this--I hope they do, because I know I end up needing help throughout the week). He's proactive in helping me figure out solutions to my projects, and always helps me with best practices for writing maintainable code. He's also a seasoned pro as a developer, and has some good advice for the job hunt.
However, despite the "we'll get you hired" guarantee, the job hunt kind of seems to be a weak area for Thinkful. You do mock interviews with other mentors, which is great, because they are all professional developers, and part of the job of a professional developer is to interview prospective new hires (what I'm saying is that the interviews seem to be realistic), and they give feedback to your mentor, which you then talk about. They also have a tuition-free segment after graduation where you meet up weekly with a career counsellor who gives you advice on the job search. This is all well and good, but I'm not sure it can compare to the practice of in-person coding schools that have tangible connections in their local job market, and oftentimes get to basically funnel students into internships. Don't get me wrong, I'm confident that I will graduate from the program and get a job as a developer in a timely manner (my skills are getting to be pretty on-point, and I'm learning some valuable networking and interview skills), but it's probably going to be a bit harder for me than for my friends who are attending in-person coding bootcamps in town, who are going to get hooked up with internships upon graduation. That said, all it really takes to get a job in this industry is a bit of hustle, and Thinkful will help you with the hustle. If you're competent, confident, you work well with others, and you go out to make friends with other developers, you'll be all right.
Overall, I'm super glad I enrolled in Thinkful. It has been an overwhelmingly positive experience so far. It's on the cheaper side of full-time coding bootcamps, and if you can commit a lot of time and effort to it, and are willing to learn not only the coding skills but the interview skills and the job-search-huslte skills, then you'll be fully equipped to get a job as a web developer upon completion (I assume--I haven't finished yet and I don't have a job, so I guess I can't say for sure. Maybe I'll update this review once I get a job!). Overall 4/5, would recommend.
Sorry for all the parentheses, I'm a web developer, not a writer.
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Justin
Front-End Web Development Course
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Thinkful has an option for those looking for part-time study. I decided to opt for this because I had some understanding of the subject. The price is $300 - $500 / month depending on the topic.
I found the material to be very easy to understand. They nailed the core topics as well. The curriculum had interesting projects and challenges. However, I would have liked more examples and even more in-depth knowledge on how to tackle different challenges.
You are assigned a mentor who meets with you once per week. Mine was alright. Moreover, the staff checks in with you a lot which is good.
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Anonymous
IOS Programming in Swift
I enrolled in the Thinkful IOS Development Course after taking a classroom based course in NYC. Before joining Thinkful, I learned a lot of fundamentals in the classroom course. However, Thinkful has taken me to the next level, where I have been able to focus on strenghthening my weak areas with my mentor. I feel confident that I will be at a junior developer level after 3 months.
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Tigran
Cant thank them enough! They treat you like family!
At first I was skeptical about taking an online course, but Thinkful did the best they could to educate me and treat me like family so I was very comfortable with the course, very educational and Great Mentor! I cant thank them enough for all they have done! I am also coming back to take more courses!
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Joseph
Excellent school, even better mentor
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I'm currently in the home stretch of the Front End Web Development course (FEWD) online at Thinkful. I have nothing but good things to say about my experience. The coursework is laid out in a clear, sensible way, starting with very basic HTML and CSS, then working through jQuery and from there into Javascript itself, from the basics into Object Orientated Programming. Finally, it works into AJAX and working with API's. Basically the course covers A LOT of what practical things you need to know to be a fully useful web developer tomorrow. Along the way you learn how to use Git and GitHub, which is required for vritually any gig in the web development world along with sveral other tools.
Thinkful really shines in a couple ways. First, the coursework is thorough, but it's not just reading examples and watching lectures. It's very much a project based experience, one that requires the student to learn how to use all the technologies and languages above, but also forces the student to keep learning on his own. They don't just teach syntax and technique, they also teach you how to learn. You're encouraged to explore the API's online, the specifications, the forums and resources like the MDN, Slack, StackOverflow etc. No developer every really stops learning, especially when it comes to speed of light technology like this, so learning how to learn is as important as knowing syntax and methodology.All of the projects are useful as examples of your knowledge, and having them in your portfolio - which is a multi-stage project itself - are a great resource to have out there when it comes to impressing potential employers with your skills.
The other, and most important aspect of Thinkful is the 1 on 1 mentoring. My mentor Daniël is, to be frank, the man. He's an experienced programmer himself, and has a fantastic way of answering questions and teaching things during our weekly sessions. Most of the time my questions have to do with doing things the "right" way...ie what is the best practice or just the way that "real" programmers would accomplish something. Having access to a professional with a ton of experience is so key in this regard. Again, reading syntax is fine and all...but there are usually 90 ways to accomplish something. Your mentor helps you work through the various truly RIGHT ways to do things. You could never get that level of help reading a website or book, or watching a lecture.
All in all, I've had a great experience with Thinkful, especially with my mentor. My only complaint is not starting sooner. I plan on taking more courses at Thinkful - Angular, Node, Android, I'm looking at you.
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Anonymous
Very good course
I am currently taking the full time course, everything is going great. I came into the course with no experience with coding, and have learned a lot already.
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Matt Hofmann
Fantastic program!
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I had a powerful learning experience with Thinkful's Data Science track. I was grateful for the mentor's extensive background, and he brought in a valuable perspective on the course materials. The curriculum itself was challenging, and forces the user to learn how to interpret the online documentation for the various libraries used. This is beneficial for the long term - a data scientist needs to know current tools but also needs to be able to pick up new tools quickly, and Thinkful delivers on both. Occasionally there were some old links and some vague directions in the curriculum, but the Thinkful slack channel, the mentor, and the admins were quick to respond with help.
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Dinara
I'm thankful to Thinkful!
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I completed two Thinkful courses: frontend and web design. Frontend one year ago and web design this week.
First of all I want to say a huge thank you to my teacher - Alissa Pierce. She motivated and inspired me every session.
I'm a lucky person, because I have a profession I love - already a year I'm frontend developer. But I started as a Thinkful student, that was my first and probably the most important step. I like Thinkful for two things: ability to study what you really want to study online and not very expensive and for huge support during all the studing. Then you are in the beginning of your career it's really hard to believe in yourself, to believe that one day you'll become a good specialist. And my opinion that mentors in Thinkful are doing a great job to make you self assure, to make you believe that you can do it!
I don't know where I will be in web design in one year, but I know that if you want something really hard you'll get it: not at one moment, but step by step. Thinkful already helped me in many steps and I'm not going to stop.
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Anonymous
Ux design
this course teaches the basics and implementation of user experience design
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Krystyna
Front End Career Path
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I took a few classes in college and found my passion, however after graduation life moved fast and 2 years passed. I knew I wanted a career in web development but didn't know where to start and I didn't have the confidence to consider myself a "professional coder". I tried a few free teaching apps and programs (like many others) but couldn't seem to get focused or motivated. I felt like they were great for practice and review but very diffucult to teach yourself with.
That's when I came across Thinkful. Thinkful gave me the opportunity to go back to school on my own schedule and my own time without having to worry about semesters and application deadlines. But that was only the first perk! They hold you accountable, so it keeps you on track and motivated. They provide mock interviews (my weakness) which is another huge perk for me. And my mentor is not the only one keeping tabs on how I am doing in the program. So even though it's an online course, it certainly doesn't feel like it. I've taken online courses previously, and never did well in them. If that is your concern, as it was mine, don't let it be. The webinars and livechats with your mentor 2-3x per week makes you feel accountable and it's like you're actually having class sessions.
Though some was review, I have learned many new strategies as well as content during my first month alone. I absolutely cannot wait to complete this program and see how far I have come in such a short period of time. The projects are fun and challenging but very achievable. I get excited knowing that my portfolio is going to look awesome as I continue to build and add more projects!
I feel like Thinkful is there from start to finish. They don't just throw you out after completion. They stick by yourside during the whole interview and job hunt process to make sure you get in the field you want. I don't know about you, but college did not provide that for me. So in essence, I feel as if the Career Path was a wise investment for myself as well as cost effective.
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Aleks
Great info, Amazing instructor
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I had the privledge of meeting Martin Bing through Thinkful's MakerSquare Prep course and I'm sure if they have people of his caliber working with them that their other programs must be excellent. Martin went above and beyond to make sure I was comfortable with concepts, offered suggestions and examples to clarify nuances in the various concepts of JS.
Curriculum was very thorough, instructor amazing, but I wished there were more excercises or projects within them simply because a succesful bootcamp interview will depend on practice as well as understanding. That being said, I have since registered on coderbyte and pluralsight in order to continue practicing after the course.
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Steven Rodriguez
Front End
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I was trying to teach myself for 6 moths. I do not have a CS background, so it was difficult for me to even know where to start. I was looking for a free program, non of them really showed how to begin. I decided to go ahead and pay for a course and to have a mentor. Best decision I made. I learned so much more within 1 week rather than when I was trying to teach myself in those 6 months. The cirriculum is great, just one thing.. As a teacher, Vocabulary is important. They should have vocabulary in bold and maybe like a glossary or a quiz at the end of lessons.
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Jack
Amazing!
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I researche MANY resources for iOS development and Thinkful is by far the best! I had no experience in development and was quickly comfortable in just a few weeks with their resources. From the one-on-one mentoring to general support, they are responsive, direct and very helpful. I was comfortable working at my own pace and Thinkful makes it easy to jump right back in at any time.
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Anonymous
I wouldn't do it again...
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My overall experience wasn't the best. I went through the FEWD Career Path. You're supposed to get multiple mock interviews throughout the course. I received one 15 minute mock interview. Also, don't believe the job placement numbers. Their job placement assistance was a joke. The job assistance mentor who was assigned to me looked at my portfolio site for about 10 minutes and that's as far as job assistance went. Noone looked at my resume etc. I had to hire someone outside of Thinkful to help me with that. The mentor who was assigned to review my portfolio and help with finding a job had just graduated Thinkful 1-2 years ago. Is that a joke?
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Vincent
Excellent experience!
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I was simply blown away by all the resources Thinkful had to offer. My mentor was extremely knowledgeable and patient with me when explaining to me tough concepts. He was always quick to respond to any questions I had whether by email or by Slack chat. There is also an overwhelming amount of office hours and workshops that cover a wide variety of subjects and it's easy to find one that fits your schedule.
Overall, the customer service was very accommodating and the cirriculum was very in depth. I would highly recommend Thinkful to anyone!
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Helen
Ideal for hectic schedules
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I was able to go at my own pace, which was sometimes 5 hours a week and other times 15 hours a week. My mentor kept me motivated and interested in the course material. If I ever needed help outside of my mentor sessions, I utilized the slack chat function to talk my issues out with other students. I felt I got what I paid for and more with all of the resources available to me through Thinkful.
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Jake P.
Great for on the go!
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I really enjoyed my time with Thinkful and my mentor Jacquie. It seemed like she was always there when I needed her to help me on my path of learning Frontend Web Developement. Being in this program was a great boost in my confidence and knowledge and has helped to prepare me for my upcoming bootcamp. I deffinitly endorse this program, essepessialy if you are just getting into coding and don't have anyone else to talk to about it. I, for example, came from a military and personal training background so close to no one to talk to or help me with code. Since Thinkful I have gotten two job offers and won two Hackathons within two months of finishing the program...
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Jesse
Data Science in Python Review
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After getting a good grasp of the Python programming language, I don't know where I could start learning about the Data Science due to its broadly immense field of study. Not until I found Thinkful. I enrolled in Data Science in Python, because I thought it would introduce me to this field and have a better idea on the scope and analytics commonly used.
I got more than what I bargained for as the curricula goes through teaching data import and extraction from numerous sources, and once that is done, delves right into the many, many analytical methods which honestly took a bulk of my time to learn and understand. I did wish I get to learn more. My mentor, Rowan Copley, is a quirky yet awesome individual that is always available for help both during and not during mentoring sessions. He also provides great books to read or up-to-date news on this field to keep me motivated throughout the course.
However, in the end, I get to build up a great looking repository of my journey. So thanks Thinkful!
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Jesse
Data Science in Python Review
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After getting a good grasp of the Python programming language, I don't know where I could start learning about the Data Science due to its broadly immense field of study. Not until I found Thinkful. I enrolled in Data Science in Python, because I thought it would introduce me to this field and have a better idea on the scope and analytics commonly used.
I got more than what I bargained for as the curricula goes through teaching data import and extraction from numerous sources, and once that is done, delves right into the many, many analytical methods which honestly took a bulk of my time to learn and understand. I did wish I get to learn more. My mentor, Rowan Copley, is a quirky yet awesome individual that is always available for help both during and not during mentoring sessions. He also provides great books to read or up-to-date news on this field to keep me motivated throughout the course.
However, in the end, I get to build up a great looking repository of my journey. So thanks Thinkful!
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Jesse
Data Science in Python Review
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After getting a good grasp of the Python programming language, I don't know where I could start learning about the Data Science due to its broadly immense field of study. Not until I found Thinkful. I enrolled in Data Science in Python, because I thought it would introduce me to this field and have a better idea on the scope and analytics commonly used.
I got more than what I bargained for as the curricula goes through teaching data import and extraction from numerous sources, and once that is done, delves right into the many, many analytical methods which honestly took a bulk of my time to learn and understand. I did wish I get to learn more. My mentor, Rowan Copley, is a quirky yet awesome individual that is always available for help both during and not during mentoring sessions. He also provides great books to read or up-to-date news on this field to keep me motivated throughout the course.
However, in the end, I get to build up a great looking repository of my journey. So thanks Thinkful!
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Alexander Osha
Thinkful Frontend Web Development
HTML, CSS, Javascript -
Victor Ahluwalia
Web Development Career Path
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I'm about a month through the web development career path and I could not be any more satisfied with my experience. My mentor, Alex Cumbo, is a great teacher and has guided me through the material by breaking down concepts at a very detailed level and by keeping me interested in learning more. I really like the way the curriculum is structured as it introduces a certain topic and then provides an opportunity to complete fun excerices that help reinforce the concepts.
I am excited to progress further into the course and will provide an update once I complete the curriculum.
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Ian Mrak
Great experience
As a self taught programmer, Thinkful provided invaluable experience with day-to-day commincation and problem solving with another engineer. They help familiarize me with a professional working environment as well as providing a solid set of coursework for intermediate JavaScript.
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Bill H
AngularJS Course
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I took the Front End Web Development course about a year ago and decided to sign up for the the Angular course in February. The FEWD course about a year ago wasn't perfect, but I got through it and learned a lot. I learned enough to coast through the front end part of my brick and mortar Java boot camp. That's why I decided to go with Thinkful again and take the Angular course.
I'm about half way through it and I'm much happier with the quality of the content. It's written much more clearly and understandably these days. The projects that we do are great because we build on the same few projects the whole class. And, of course, the mentorship is what makes it great. My mentor has helped me get unstuck many times. It helps keep me motivated. Were I learning by myself, I'm afraid that getting stuck without help might decrease my motivation. That's why the mentorship at Thinkful is worth so much.
I was happy with the FEWD class and I'm happy with this one, too. I'll probably end up taking more as well. It's a worthwhile investment.
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Anonymous
Web Development Career Path
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I've had a great experience using the Thinkful Web Development Career Path. You must be disciplined enough to spend time working through challenges on your own, but the great thing about the program is access to the wealth of knowledge through your mentor and Slack community. Thinkful provides fun challenges to work through each new concept. Combining that with access to people with real world experience really makes the learning process flow wonderfully.
I'm looking forward to continuing towards my career goals with the Thinkful team.
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Amit
Web Development Career Path Review
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I've had an extremely positive experience taking the Web Development Career Path course through Thinkful. I had taken all the self-paced online courses in HTML, CSS, and JS via Codecademy and was ready to take what I learned to the next level. They definitely helped me do that.
Thinkful does a great job of teaching you about a subject, and having you apply it to an actual project. All the little exercises that courses like Codecademy give are helpful for understanding syntax and the general language; it is, in my experience, very difficult to take a basic understanding of a language and build something with it. They also helped me do that.
Thinkful did a great job introducing me to several technologies and libraries that are critical to becoming a competitive job candidate in today's developer job market (Webpack, React, Node, Redux, etc.).
Thinkful's cream of the crop is its mentor sessions. I was matched with an experienced developer who understands the ins and outs of what one needs to know to become a professional developer. He's done a really good job of teaching me the latest and greatest technologies (listed above), which I can easily take with me to a proffesional setting. He's also been available to me as a resource throughout the week if I ever get stuck on a bug or confused on a subject matter. It's kind of like having your own personal tutor who's always available to help you out. It's pretty great.
The other cool part of Thinkful is it's Slack group and daily office hours sessions. If for whatever reason your mentor isn't available, Thinkful has a giant group chat of fellow students and mentors that are more than happy to help you out if you get stuck on something.
Overall, I pretty much avoided paying $19k for a full-time bootcamp, worked part-time while I studied, and gained all the necessary skills I needed to get a job as a developer. It's a pretty sweet deal.
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Jason Terlizzi
Ruby on Rails
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The best thing about Thinkful are the mentors and access to a large number of engineers via Slack. I took the Full-Stack Rails class, and it was incredable. You'll have to be disciplined as the first 2 sections show basic techniques for development. Most of your time will be spent understanding how things work and applying concepts to your own projects. This is where mentors help out a great deal. The last section of the Rails course was a bit more difficult, there were several typos which led me to believe it hasn't been reviewed recently. This is the only flaw I found with the course, I spent several hours going down a rabbit hole with typos and wrong concepts that weren't edited correctly. In the end, after 3 months of instense study, I'm now doing small Rails projects as side work. It also helped me with becoming a better problem solver and using programming as a skill-set.
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Andrew
Programming in Python
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This review is for the course "Programming in Python" (part-time; 3 months; $500 a month). It took me 2 months to complete the standard course material and a month to finish my capstone project.
I have previous programming experience in Java, JavaScript, and C. At the time of enrollment in this course, I was already working at a tech company as a technical account manager, coding in JavaScript on a daily basis. No prior Python experience, though!
There are dozens of free online Python courses (some better than Thinkful's), but that's not what you're paying for when you sign up for one of Thinkful's courses. What you're paying for is direct access to a community of developers who have years of experience working in their industry. My mentor, Tudor, was an invaluable asset, steering me in the right direction and saving me countless hours of what surely would have been fruitless internet searching. Tudor always knew multiple different tools, libraries, and methods I could explore to accomplish my tasks.
All of this isn't to say that the course curriculum isn't valuable. It certainly is. The material focuses on breadth rather than depth, though, meaning that you'll touch upon every aspect of developing and deploying a web app that a fullstack developer might. There's the bread and butter Python, but that leads into some HTML, CSS, and JavaScript; configuring and using databases; web frameworks like Flask and Django (for the adventurous); unit and component testing; Heroku deployment; continuous integration; and more. My only disappointment was that there weren't more lessons on the Python language itself, so I ended up purchasing a dedicated Python book to supplement the course which I found extremely useful.
With this course and my mentor Tudor's help, I was able to create a web app that I will use as part of my portfolio when applying for a developer position. More immediately, however, I have been able to apply the Python skills I learned to build numerous tools for my coworkers at my current job to help them automate their more tedious tasks.
Ultimately, this course was valuable to me for two reasons: 1) because I already had experience in a few programming languages, but didn't understand how the development cycle of modern web apps all fit together; and 2) because having a mentor was motivating and a much better use of my time than scrounging the internet for answers.
I hope this review helps you find the right course for your needs! Good luck!
Disclaimer: Thinkful offered me a t-shirt for this review. But, if it makes you feel any better I have other t-shirts so it's not like I had to write this review.
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Anthony Espino
My Experience at Thinkful
My experience at thinkful has too be honestly one of the best decision I have made for myself. So far i been enjoying the lessons. But the real reason I believe that makes Thinkful is their mentors, My mentor is willing to take the time to help me with any problems i might have and very encouraging
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M Williams
M Williams
The curriculum is great but to me the mentor session time is what really stands out about the program.
I came to the right place.
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Colette Kenney
Mentorship Rules
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I'm a Mechanical Engineer with a Masters in Psychology who currently earns a living as a Project Controls Manger in Oil and Gas. Due to a volitile energy market, and an overwhelming desire to work remotely from anywhere in the world; I decided it was time to become a FULL-STACK WEB DEVELOPER.
I needed to find a school who would teach me what I needed to know in the shortest amount of time possible. So I did a Google search (I think my search terms were something like "Best Online Schools Full Stack Web Developer") and up came Thinkful. Their website suggested that they could teach you to be a Full-Stack developer in 4-6 months, so the timeframe was just right. And then, when I saw that Thinkful offered mentorship I 100% knew I'd be signing up. What better way to get through a program quickly than to have 3 one-hour mentorship sessions per week!
The curriculum at Thinkful is challenging, there is no doubt. The learning curve is steep! But they teach you everything you need to know, using the tools of the trade that you will be using when you get your first job, and the mentorship they provide ensures that you stick with it, even when the going gets tough.
Learning to code isn't easy. If it was, everyone would be doing it. I am grateful to have found Thinkful because if I was trying to learn to code on my own, I'm sure I would have quit more than a few times already!
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Adeola
No regrets
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I enrolled into the Thinkful python programming course after two failed attempts to learn python via Coursera. The main thing that reinforced my decision to enroll in this course was the mentor arrangment which I felt would accelerate my learning since I would have someone I could talk to.
I have enjoyed working with my mentor(Hoa Tran). His approach to working with me is not one where he just solves my coding problems by typing out the solution. Instead it is one of "forced learning" where he asks me to think and try to solve the problem by myself. Most times this is very frustrating but it has helped improve my problem solving skills when it comes to finding out errors in my code. Another avenue that I have really enjoyed is the Thinkful slack community because there is always someone to help, with whatever issue you are confused about. Sometimes as coding newbies one is ashamed to ask questions because you are worried you might be ridiculed, but I have never experienced that in the t´Thinkful slack community. Rosuav a thinkful mentor has been especially helpful.
The course content is very thorough and you get to learn a lot of things and type out really great code. There are however some areas which I think need to be improved. For instance there are no python workshops available on the website. Some of the topics covered in the python course are really complex and require more than just written text for a newbie to understand. I also wish there were more python Q&A sessions. This used to be the case when I first started the course but in the last few weeks, this has changed.
Overall I have had to make some sacrifices financially to take this course but I have no regrets. It has been a worthwhile experience.
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Adeola
No regrets
Read more Read less of Adeola's review
I enrolled into the Thinkful python programming course after two failed attempts to learn python via Coursera. The main thing that reinforced my decision to enroll in this course was the mentor arrangment which I felt would accelerate my learning since I would have someone I could talk to.
I have enjoyed working with my mentor(Hoa Tran). His approach to working with me is not one where he just solves my coding problems by typing out the solution. Instead it is one of "forced learning" where he asks me to think and try to solve the problem by myself. Most times this is very frustrating but it has helped improve my problem solving skills when it comes to finding out errors in my code. Another avenue that I have really enjoyed is the Thinkful slack community because there is always someone to help, with whatever issue you are confused about. Sometimes as coding newbies one is ashamed to ask questions because you are worried you might be ridiculed, but I have never experienced that in the t´Thinkful slack community. Rosuav a thinkful mentor has been especially helpful.
The course content is very thorough and you get to learn a lot of things and type out really great code. There are however some areas which I think need to be improved. For instance there are no python workshops available on the website. Some of the topics covered in the python course are really complex and require more than just written text for a newbie to understand. I also wish there were more python Q&A sessions. This used to be the case when I first started the course but in the last few weeks, this has changed.
Overall I have had to make some sacrifices financially to take this course but I have no regrets. It has been a worthwhile experience.
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Anonymous
Thinkful Career Path
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At first, I was hestitant to go forward with an online bootcamp, but now that it has been a month, I am definitely pleased with my choice. Yes, there are free materials online and books you can buy, but sometimes books/tutorials are too theory heavy, lack projects, too dry, or erroneous. Sometimes you also need an experienced guide to help you separate the wheat from the chaff, when it comes to learning new materials.
In my opinion, the best way to learn a language is to use it and develop meaningful projects. This course does just that. There is ample room for creativity for the projects and you'll get a good base of the fundamentals from which you can self-teach.
Mentorship is excellent because you learn by asking the right questions and getting feedback. Sometimes you get stuck and need to dig your way out, but in the beginning stages, you crawl before you can walk.
I would definitely recommend Thinkful to anyone interested in learning in a structured environment using a pragmatic approach.
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Uday
Introduction to Python Review
I have been really impressed by Thinkful. The team are not only friendly, but also extremely efficient. I signed up for the introduction to pyhton course, and have found the course material and assigned mentor to be first rate.