Chegg Skills

I took the Engineering Flex course. It wasn't quite what I expected going into it. It is a lot of information and a lot of reading going into it. Also, there will be some outside studying you need to do to really grasp the concept. Overall I found it really helpful and am really thankful for the course as it taught me a lot! The best thing about the course is definitely the mentor sessions or a least the mentor I had. He was very helpful and would go out of his way to make sure you understood the concepts. 

I am currently halfway through the Engineering Immersion program offered by Thinkful and I am absolutely blown away by how much I have learned and retained in the passed 8 weeks. I have learned several different libraries and languages in order to further my goal as a developer. I am getting ready to start learning Computer Science algorithms and building my capstone projects! Everyone around me including the teachers, my mentor, the TA's and other students are extremely helpful and collabrative. That being said, do not take the warnings lightly. I spend on average 50-60 hours every week for this class and treat it as a full time job plus some. However, if you can handle the work load, you will walk away feeling supported, valued, and happier! If you're on the fence give it a try! They offer a free trial period! 

As much as I loved what Thinkful had to offer, I can now say that Engineering Flex program was not for me. As an older learner, I felt that the curriculum could have been better written which is why I am giving it 1 star. Many details of whatever subject matter you are on feel like they are left out or not fully explained. 

The best analogy I can give is, imagine if you were enrolled in a Driver's Education program. The program gives you online lessons that talk about getting in the car, putting your key in, starting it, using turn signals, and then it talks about the Automatic transmission and outlines all of the different gears. It then leaves you with a short description on transmissions like 'Automatic transmissions are the most common transmissions in cars today. There is also a manual or stick shift transmission available but we will discuss that later.'

The lesson continues to talk about when to use your turn signals, when to put your car in Drive instead of Low Gear, and then discusses seatbelts or something else related to driving the car. When it comes time to actually drive the car, the lesson presents you with a vehicle, you get in, start it, then come to realize that it's a stick shift/manual transmission. You then have 30 minutes to google the solution on how to drive a stick shift. That's where a lot of my frustration came from. 

I've shared my feedback with the Thinkful staff and they were very responsive but unfortunately, the curriculum can't be changed overnight. That said, that isn't to say that this isn't a good program. For applicants with some prior coding knowledge beyond simple HTML and CSS, this is a great program. For people that are new to coding, I strongly recommend getting a foundation from other coding resources before enrolling because you will always feel behind the curve especially if you are trying to complete this program within the six months on the Flex Program. 

I have since withdrawn from the program to pursue an in-class program that caters more to my learning style. My last issue is with the refund policy. The policy states in the student catalog that a student may be eligible for a refund after the trial period but when I pressed the finance department on this, they said that I wasn't eligible for a partial refund because they don't calculate refunds on a per day basis. That should be clearly stated in the school catalog. 

In closing, I'd like to thank my Program Manager and my Mentor for being patient with me and for their encouragement which is why I gave an overall rating of 3 stars - they were the ones that made this learning experience bareable. 

The program is amazing great staff and great teachers. A mentor always there if you need help and plenty of places to go to for help. But if you are not ready for the time dedication or you don't think you will be motivated then don't waste your time. they will give 100% if you give them 100%.

This review is highly detailed, as it needs to be to fully outline my experience of being removed from Thinkful’s Engineering Immersion Prep Course.

After years of apprehension towards pursuing Programming, and approximately 1 year of considering Thinkful, Inc. as my final choice for a school, in August of 2019, I applied to attend Thinkful’s Engineering Immersion Program and was accepted.  I had a great interaction with one of Thinkful’s admission advisors as he explained how admission, prep course and the EI course would work and we discussed my financing options.

I live in a major city so the living stipend was an option for me; I applied for the living stipend and the ISA (Income Share Agreement) issued via Lief Technologies, Inc.
I was approved for both the living stipend and the ISA the day after I applied and signed the contract as well.  Things were going off without a hitch and I was very excited to get started.

I met with my Program Manager who gave me plenty of resources of how to stay connected while in the prep course.  She made sure that I knew of the various avenues of community help and even local communities in my area; all things that allow a person to feel & remain grounded while studying in what may feel like an isolated environment, as distance/online learning can feel like at times.  I credit 2 of her correspondences with me on tech evaluation preparation and progress in the program as one of the primary reasons I remained motivated throughout the latter part of my stay in the prep course.

During Thinkful’s 4-week prep course, you are assigned to a mentor who you meet with twice a week to help iron out any kinks in your understanding the material that you would study independently for those 4 weeks.  My mentor was [redacted by moderators]. 
The dynamic with this mentor who was assigned to me wasn’t as harmonious as it could have been and we definitely had different teaching/learning styles and a few too many awkward silences where he didn’t control the flow of the session, but given the return on investment of a career change and being approved for the living stipend and ISA, it was a simple decision to just take these biweekly sessions on the chin, use the opportunity to learn all that I could and push through the material, as not all partnerships will be ideal. Not to mention, this was only the prep course and not someone who I would be assigned to for the duration of the course.

During my second to last session with [redacted by moderators], we’d gone over a few principles and he gave me some code to practice and told me to practice writing the code over and over in order to drill in the syntax; no problem there.  In all of our sessions, I made sure to fork what we’d worked on, or copy and paste the code to practice it in a separate editor, but NEVER would I change or add to the code he wrote during a mentor session.
The next day when I was practicing the syntax he wrote, none of the code would run. 
Additionally, this rang true for the rest of the code he asked me to practice from the repl.it file we were working on that previous session.  NONE of the code worked!
So during our next and last session, after our initial greetings, I asked him “Is the code we were working on the other day supposed to run?  I was practicing writing it and none of it runs in the editor and I’d like to get it cleaned up so I’m practicing the correct syntax.”
To which, he passive-aggressively replied, “Can you give me a link so I know what you’re talking about?”
And instead of cleaning up the code I brought to his attention, he immediately began to shift gears and began reviewing and teaching me the same code block that was incorrect, and quizzing me on the code.  I reiterated that my primary concern was to make sure this code is written correctly so I wouldn’t be committing incorrect syntax to memory.  Also, I just wanted to be able to cover new material in this session after the code was corrected.
He insisted on reviewing, after which he removed the incorrect pieces of code at the end.
This happened over 2 blocks of code I brought to his attention.

He then wrote an exercise he wanted me to write code for and I noticed it was the same exercise with precisely the same instructions from our previous session; code that he wrote and corrected in the end.
So I reviewed that exercise and wrote what I saw in the earlier exercise.  He asked me why I wrote this “anti-code” and I showed him the code that had his instructions word-for-word attached to the exercise and it mirrored the exact exercise we were currently working on and I told him I was just reviewing the code he wrote in the same exercise in our previous session.
[Mentor name redacted by moderators] then became very defensive and said he didn’t write it and accused me having changed code after-session.
All of this immediately after cleaning up code he'd written and had instructed me to practice.

I wasn’t very pleased with how this session went, so I emailed my Program Manager because I remember she mentioned I could contact her if I needed to. I asked if we could arrange a time for consultation before our next scheduled meeting.
My goal in that meeting would have been ensuring that, if possible, I could be assigned another mentor for the duration of my stay in prep course and any additional study materials for the upcoming technical evaluation I was on track to take.
I never received a response to that email.

Later that afternoon however, I received an email from my program manager stating that my mentor reported that I had violated the code of conduct and displayed disrespectful behavior during the session and that I would be withdrawn from the prep course effective that day.
I was never questioned about the session by Thinkful.  
My reaching out to the program manager wasn’t taken into consideration, no investigation whatsoever. 
It was just a staff employee’s word over a student’s.
I replied to the program manager that I did in fact have questions and I hoped that the sessions were recorded at the very least.
I received no response.

My advise to other student hopefuls is if you are considering Thinkful or PARTICULARLY if you end up with this mentor is to Cover. Your. Back.
Keep a record of everything and record your sessions if you don’t think they are going the way they should. Don't shy away from requesting a different mentor if you feel it may be necessary.
Do not allow one bad apple to ruin your progress, or in this case, cost you the opportunity to be awarded a stipend.
Onward and Upward!

This course is awful. While they pair you with a mentor and that's a plus, the curriculum is TERRIBLE. There are no videos, there are paragraphs of vague explanations on complex topics (often times riddled with errors), and then a subset of code that is NOT EXPLAINED and you have no idea what each piece is doing. I completed the course successfully and definitely don't feel like I could be a successful data scientist. Don't waste your money--spend a little extra time and money on a course where you will actually learn something. 

I enrolled in the Full Stack Flex boot camp because I wanted school like structure because I procrastinate without deadlines.  Curriculum is pretty good, but you'll still have to learn a lot by yourself that isn't covered.  I had 2 mentors.  The first was not great.  He missed meetings, didn't go out of his way to teach me anything unless I explicitly asked.  Second one was really good and I wouldn't have graduated on time without him.  They do guarentee a job but only if you complete it the course in 6 months or less.  I got employed about 3 months after graduating and I'm really happy with my job.

Starting the Data Science course to this program, I had no computer science background. I had earned a master's in biology 5 years prior and really enjoyed processing the data (Excel, sigma plot and sigma stat). After comparing a few programs, I decided Thinkful was the way to go since they are so sure of the program that they offered a money back guarantee if you don't get a job in the field within six months. I just graduated the program, so I will start my career search now. What I can say about the program is that I learned a TON. Some of it I may never use, but I am glad to have the information. Other info such as the supervised learning techniques I see as indispensible. I started with a mentor who eventually left the company and I therefore ended up with a really helpful mentor half-way through the program. He always gave great advice and was super encouraging. I did not find Slack, the online collaborative chat to be very helpful, as I would often just get responses that sent me to stack overflow links that I had already seen and did not help my situation. I would also say that the timing estimates were not all that accurate for me. Some tasks that were only supposed to take a few days took me weeks. I work 40-50 hours a week and was anticipating dedicating 20 hours to Thinkful but it ended up being closer to 30-35. I used all my pause days as I juggled work, a family emergency, and an unexpected trip so it took me about 8 months to do this six month course. But therein also lies the amazing thing about this program: I was able to balance my life with this program and I came out of it with so much more knowledge than I had 8 months ago. It's cheaper than some of the other programs I looked at as well and for someone who, again, was starting with no foundation, it was necessary to endure a longer program as I don't think I would have understood anything going into a 'Learn Python in a week' course. I also ended up with two different program managers in the course and they were both amazing. Super nice and encouraging and always very quick with their responses and help. I think the curriculum could use some tweaking as some assignments are a bit ambiguous, or show you something simple and then ask you to do something far more complex. Overall though, I learned a lot and was glad to work on real world problems and not just theory during this course.

I enjoyed and strongly recommend Thinkful.  

The program is fundamentally a broad, though shallow, overview of the core data science toolkit. It’s primarily designed for people without a coding background. The curriculum features a structured, top-down, conceptual overview of topics and algorithms followed by hands on exercises, challenges, and capstone projects.  Thinkful does not provide a holistic, nor deep-dive, into the math behind the algorithms but the lessons often have links to additional resources for the students to consider in due course. Given that students come from diverse backgrounds, I think this is smart.

The real highlights of Thinkful are the things which go beyond the actual data science curriculum, namely all of the technical support. This includes: one-on-one mentorship multiple times a week, open technical coach "office hours" multiple times a day, an active student message board with mentors available 10 hours every day, and finally, a career support team to assist with your job hunt after graduation. It amazes me that they offer so much personalized technical support.  This is the strength of the program in my eyes.

They created a successful program to lift students into the data science field. I couldn’t have asked for more from a bootcamp. 

-Pros - 
It will provide you with good and updated material to get your skills sharp on the language that they are teaching you. 
It is fast paced, it will make time fly and you will be learning a lot really fast. 
It will challenge yourself as a professional, and you will understand the meaning of "detail oriented'.

-Cons- 
- Why didn't I start this program earlier? - I ask myself this question almost everyday.

It may seem overwhelming at the beginning but trust me they will provide you with the tools for your success. Understand that this boot camp is what its name means, it will require of your time to sit down and put the hours in. I currently have a full time job, my afternoons and evenings I have to dedicate to the program in order to stay on meeting my dates.

I am really enjoying working through the Thinkful curriculum, and the support of my Thinkful mentor and the community has really helped me through the process. I am currently a part of the Full Stack Flex program and one thing I really appreciate about this program is the flexibility to be able to get the work done outside of working my day job. The curriculum provides a lot of helpful reading, which I can sometimes do on-the-go, and the way the projects and assignments are structured is super engaging. They have elevated the program even more to include more online community among students as well as some local meet-ups and networking events. 

I chose Thinkful over other boot camps because of the cost, the mentorship, and the job guarantee.  My experience has been positive on all fronts.  I can't say enough about my mentor and my program manager, they were the key to my success along with my hard work.  My program manager was there to assist with any questions I had about the program, such as staying on track to graduate on time.  My mentor was patient, helpful and knowledgeable about various Data Science topics. If you don't have the math and programming skills, you will definitely have to put in more time. I am glad I stuck with this course and finished strong.  If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing.  It's never too late to start something new!

Apologies for the wall of text that's about to follow! Apparently I had a lot to say, so I hope that some will find it useful.

Overview (TL/DR)

Enrolling at Thinkful is one of the best decisions I've ever made. They have a solid curriculum with staff who are really invested in student success. Not only do you graduate the program having obtained a highly-sought-after skillset, but Thinkful continues to support you in your job search and provides the strategies, resources, and connections that will really help you reach your goal of becoming a Developer.

Why Learn to Code?

I assume that if you're reading this, you've already thought about the answer to that question. For me, I started coding as a side-project when my former company asked me to redesign their website—I had no prior experience, but it was so rewarding to dive in, solve problems on-the-fly, and emerge with something I was really proud of. After taking some time to reflect, I decided that my interests and skills were more aligned with a career in programming.

I found it helpful to figure out my own, personal "why" and think about what I really wanted to get out of this journey. Defining a simple, reasonable, quantitative goal gave me something to aim for and helped me to stay motivated and focused. The goal I came up with for myself was to "obtain a growth-oriented software developer job in the Chicago area within 6 months of graduating from boot camp with a salary that would allow me to comfortably start a family."

One of the first major steps I took was to complete Udacity's "Intro to Computer Science" course, which validated my feelings that this is something I would really enjoy doing. There are many similar resources out there (freeCodeCamp is another good one) where you can get a taste of what being a programmer is all about and decide if it's right for you. Additionally, Thinkful has a mandatory Prep Course (which I'll discuss in more detail later) that also allow you to dip your toes in the water before taking the full plunge.

Why A Boot Camp?

One thing I know about myself is that when I’m trying to learn something on my own, I can spend hours just researching the "best" way to learn it, often to the point of paralysis by analysis. That's why the concept of a boot camp really resonated with me—allowing someone else to handle the "what" and "how" of my education by curating a solid curriculum would help me stay focused and moving forward. My next step was… research!

Why Thinkful?

Using sites like SwitchUp and CourseReport, I created a comparison spreadsheet of all the boot camps I was interested in. Thinkful's Engineering Immersion program checked all the right boxes—it combined the ideal qualities of a modern, comprehensive, project-based curriculum, high-quality teaching staff, regular 1-on-1 mentorship, daily peer collaboration, and outcome-oriented career services. From the glowing reviews of alumni, I got the impression that Thinkful is constantly striving to improve and update the program to the benefit of future student cohorts. So, I decided to take the leap and applied for the July 2018 cohort.

Prior to Starting

After applying to the Engineering Immersion program, I had a phone call with one of Thinkful's program coordinators to make sure that I was a good "culture fit." They mainly wanted to hear about my background and why I was learning to code, answer any questions I had, and go over the next steps.

Then I began the Prep Course, the cost of which went towards the full program tuition. It was 4 weeks long and required a 30 hours/week commitment. The course is designed to get you up to speed on the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This was mostly self-guided learning using the curriculum they provided, however I was assigned a Mentor during the Prep Course, who I met with twice a week to go over what I was learning and discuss anything I was struggling with or had questions about.

The Prep Course also included a few short lessons on communication and other soft skills which provided some tools and strategies to help you work well in a group environment. I loved that they provided this and it gave me the impression that they really wanted everyone to have a great experience collaborating in our cohort.

Towards the end of the Prep Course, my Mentor helped me prepare for the Technical Evaluation, which you need to pass in order to be admitted to the full-time program. They asked some general questions about the topics covered in the Prep Course and then I had to complete 5 coding challenges using JavaScript.

Once I passed the Technical Evaluation and was admitted into the full-time Engineering Immersion program, I had an orientation session where I got to meet all of the other students in my cohort and got an overview of the program.

The Curriculum

There were four main instructional "units" of the program, each led by a different instructor. After each unit ended, we would schedule a mock interview (similar to the Prep Course Technical Evaluation) which would focus on the material covered in that unit.

1. The first unit (2 weeks) covered JavaScript, jQuery, and how to architect and build asynchronous web applications, culminating in a 3-day solo project where I built my own web app.

2. The second unit (4 weeks) was all about server-side programming, using Node/Express to build RESTful APIs, PostgreSQL and Mongo to build databases. We also learned how to write tests and construct user authentication strategies.

3. The third unit (2 weeks) was dedicated to learning React and Redux, an extremely popular framework for building web apps.

4. The fourth unit (2 weeks) was on data structures and algorithms, a very useful topic to prepare you for programming interviews.

Interspersed between and around these core instructional units, we had about 7 total weeks dedicated to working on projects, both solo and in groups. In the final week of the program, we focused on completing our online portfolios and polishing up our projects in preparation for the job search.

Overall I was extremely impressed with the quality and freshness of the curriculum. One of the program coordinators told me that they try to make at least one substantial update to the program after each cohort of students, and it really shows in the quality and attention to detail of the curriculum. You can tell that Thinkful really cares about what their students think. There are many opportunities to provide feedback, both solicited and unsolicited.

There were a few scattered instances of an outdated or broken link, but that just comes with the territory of a curriculum which is constantly improving and evolving to keep up with the pace of the industry.

Thinkful was really, really good about teaching us to be independent developers. There was some necessary hand-holding in the beginning as we learned the basics, but they pretty quickly transitioned us to working both independently and on group projects where it was really up to us to come up with an idea, organize the projects, research different technologies that might be useful, study documentation, and work autonomously.

A Typical Day

Class started at 9am (Central) every morning with a lecture by the lead instructor for that unit of the curriculum. This was typically about an hour long and was held in a group chat room where we could watch the instructor and ask questions via text, voice, or video. I really enjoyed this format and thought that the instructors provided a lot of great insights. They were also very good at explaining things in a way that was easy to follow and understand.

Next, we would break into pairs (we had a different partner each day) and work on coding exercises using a technique called pair programming—this is where you take turns writing code ("driving") and providing direction ("navigating"). This definitely took some getting used to, but quickly started to feel more natural as we progressed. It's great practice for learning to work with different people and different personalities, and it helps us pull each other along—I noticed on some days that my partner was teaching me a lot, while on others I was doing the teaching. Most days it was a mix of both. If you ran into any trouble, you could always message the instructor/TA's, who would join your room and help you figure things out. 

After a 45-minute lunch break, we'd have an afternoon lecture, which was usually a short review or small addition to the content we covered in the morning lecture.

Then, we'd break into our pairs again and work on some more exercises until the end of the day (4:30pm Central).

In the evenings, we'd meet with our personal Mentors at an agreed-upon time for 30 minutes. Thinkful Mentors work regular jobs in the industry and provide mentorship on the side, so in addition to getting help with your coursework, they can provide valuable insight about life as a real Developer.

We'd also usually have an assigned reading each night to introduce the topic for the next day's class. Thinkful recommended that we dedicate at least 2 hours per night to studying outside of class. Obviously, the more time you put into it, the more you'll get out of the program, so it's important that your family/friends understand the time commitment you've made so that they allow you time to focus and study. I found that in order to keep up" at the level I wanted to be at, I had to devote more like 3-4 hours every night, plus an additional 3-4 hours per day on weekends.

Projects

The projects were a great way to really apply our knowledge in a practical setting and review and reinforce some of the lessons we had learned. They also provided great material for our portfolios.

The highlight of the program for me was our first Full-Stack Capstone project. We had finally reached the point where we had the knowledge to build a complete web application and then were given two weeks to brainstorm, plan, design, build, and deploy a full-stack project of our choice. While we still had regular progress check-ins with our instructor, it was so cool to have the freedom to flex our skills and creativity and dive deep into a project.

During the final Capstone project, I was on a team of five, where we came up with the concept for an app, decided on the features we wanted to implement, created user stories and wireframes, organized our tasks on a Trello board, and had daily morning stand-ups to discuss our progress and any hurdles we encountered. I think we all learned a lot about the importance of communication, organization, and version control when working in a collaborative environment. It was so cool to be put into an Agile development environment, simulating the type of tasks and interactions we might encounter in our professional work.

Pace/Difficulty

The pace of the program was very quick—it often felt like we were just starting to wrap our heads around one subject when another would get introduced. Some days were definitely more difficult than others, but the days seemed well-balanced so it never got too overwhelming.

I sometimes wished that I had time to read more about a few of the more complex topics we covered, but then you run the risk of going down a rabbit hole and losing focus, so overall I'm happy with the pace and structure. It did feel at times like I was literally just coding, eating, and sleeping, but I knew the program would be time-consuming, so it's hard to complain, especially when I look at how far I developed in such a short time.

Job Search

One of the key selling points for the program was the focus on giving me the skills required to land a Developer job, and that includes the soft skills. There was an entire section of the curriculum dedicated to crafting application materials, networking, and interviewing.

Upon graduating, I was also paired with a dedicated Career Coach, who would meet with me every 1-3 weeks (more frequently earlier on) to go over your application materials, talk about different job hunting techniques, and help you refine your strategy if things weren't working.

They definitely expect a lot from you during the job searching phase (see the specific requirements in their Tuition Refund Guarantee), but it's all designed with the goal of getting you a job as quickly as possible.

Thinkful is great about connecting with companies who are looking for Developers like you. Your mileage may vary depending on where you live, but Thinkful introduced me to quite a few companies in Chicago.

Outcome

I'm thrilled to say that, having recently been hired as a Software Engineer at Groupon's Chicago headquarters, I've surpassed my wildest expectations of what I'd be able to accomplish in only a year's time. Thinkful was absolutely instrumental in every step of the way. Not only did they provide me with the current, relevant skills I would need to impress during my interviews, but their incredibly hard-working Careers Team helped me get a foot in the door by making an introduction with Groupon and helping me cut through the high volume of applications they receive on a regular basis.

One of the highlights of my life will be the moment after I received the job offer and then immediately called my wife to deliver the good news and got to hear her cries of joy. This means so much to us and our aspirations of starting a life together. It's also incredibly significant to me, personally, to be doing something that I love in an environment where I'll be challenged and inspired to learn and grow. As I think about my future and start to set new goals for my life and career, I'm so grateful for the time I had with Thinkful and for their incredible team of instructors, mentors, managers, and coaches. I'll always look back fondly on Thinkful as the pivotal factor in propelling me along my desired career path.

...quite thoughtful, if you'll forgive the pun. In my experience with the program over the last few months, I've come to this conclusion on more than one occassion. From the screening process to the curriculum development to the mentoring, there's ample evidence throughout that the community which designed & developed this bootcamp put a lot time and effort (and therefore a lot of thought) into its creation & maintenance. I think the most impressive aspect though is the confidence that everyone on staff has in the mission to prepare you for a job when you're ready, or upon completion (it's up to you, truly). And that goes for the resources that are made available throughout: it seems that there is a constant drive towards what is relevant whether it's a project management tool, or another Excel reference. Thinkful as indeed the right choice for me.

I am currently in Thinkful's Full Stack Flex program, and I'm very happy with my decision. I was initially planning on doing a local in-person bootcamp. I wanted the face to face mentorship and the opportunity to have an immediate network of local partners. I decided to go with Thinkful primarily for two reasons (aside from being able to keep my day job while I learn...):

1) Mentorship. I have learned a ton by meeting with my mentor twice a week. And since it is a self-paced program (unlike a structured local bootcamp) I'm not held back by the class when I easily understand a concept, and I'm not rushed past a concept when I am slower to understand it. Also, I have a regional advocate, a project manager, that helps with bigger picture things, and helps support a local community of learners.

2) Job guarantee. Although I feel confident that if I put in the work that Thinkful is preparing me to enter the industry, I don't need blind faith. Thinkful is transparent about its outcomes, and reports are released by a third party (CIRR). Basically, if you can graduate, you are extremely likely to find a job. The caveat seems to be that because the barrier to entry is low for Thinkful, a lot of people don't make it through the program (roughly half). I am committed to taking it seriously and putting in the hours, and I am on pace to graduate on time. Even if I can't find work upon graduation (which I don't think will be the case), I am guaranteed my money back.

This program is not easy, especially while working a full-time job and being a father of two young children. For background context, I have a B.S. degree in Science, and have been putting in pretty close to the 25 hours a week to keep nicely on pace for the 6-month graduation.

Thinkful's program provides incredible support for students seeking to jump into full-time development. They seek to emulate a professional dev environment by utilizing paired programming throughout ~80% of the course, setting you up to do very well in many coding interview formats. Mock interviews and mentor support are top-notch. The staff is incredibly passionate about shaping the next generation of developers, and it shows!

I had a phenomenal experience in Data Analytics. Usually when I am taking a course "fun" isn't usually the first thing that pops up in my mind, but I really did have fun taking this course. That is probably partly because I am a nerd and data really fascinates me, but I think it is also because I enjoyed the projects and content immensely.

A huge part of the experience was my mentor, Alicia. Not only did she help with the trickier technical aspects, but she helped me to feel really supported. I think the worst feeling when you are learning something new can be that self-doubt or feeling that you're stupid or not getting the concepts or that things are too hard. Alicia always made me feel like I could conquer the projects and master the concepts and let's be real- it feels great when someone praises you and notices the good and hard work you've done, and she was wonderful at that too!

Overall I learned a ton and felt great about the new skills that I acquired.

Thinkful's Engineering Immersion program was a pretty life-changing experience for me. It finally allowed me to pursue Software Engineering, which is what I have wanted to do for years.

Pros:

- Excellent support staff

- Curriculum is well thought out, and constantly evolving

- Data Structures and Algorithms section

- Apprentice feedback is welcomed and acted upon

Cons:

- Instructors need to be more involved during the final days of the program. This feedback has already been given, so I expect it to change quickly.

Overall, I would 100% recommend Thinkful to any and everyone thinking about switching careers, or looking for a post-education boost to their resume.

I spent a good few weeks researching all the available bootcamps - emailing alum and current students to find out what they thought.

With Thinkful - the overriding feedback was that the course was great as long as you were willing to work hard and do what you need to succeed. Thankfully, that's what I planned to do!

What separated Thinkful from the others was that they offered money back if they didn't help land you a role within 6 months of graduating. To me, that spoke highly of how successful they believe themselves to me. They were willing to put their money where their mouth was - again, as long as I played my part!

I attended the flex course, which meant I could continue working full time. It worked perfectly for me, and I loved that I was able to meet twice a week with a mentor to help me push through the barriers that slowed me down to allow me to keep on growing.

Some of the pros for me is being able to schedule times that work for me since my goal was also to continue to work alongside the program. I also really like being paired up with a professional mentor that really can help me narrow down my struggling points and help me progress through the program.  I think the material does a great job of covering up to date topics and complementing projects to go along with the material which can also be used in your personal portfolio when it comes down to applying for your first job. There are also 5 mock interviews which have given me a taste of what a typical interview will feel like and you get personalized feedback so you can work on improving yourself for the real one. One last thing I would personally recommend to anyone out there considering starting the program is making sure you have the time to dedicate to learning, practicing and progressing through the program because it is very easy to fall behind schedule.​