Chegg Skills

I Want the world to know about My School Thinkful, for a person that had minimal experience working with Excel and Powerpoint, I took on a beast when i encountered the immersion program at Thinkful my Academic Success Manager Encouraged me from day one, (Cali Stephans) and all of the Mentors (Jay Padhya) TA's Instructors After hours Teachers (Jason Flick, Teddy Aronson, Walter Shields, Adam Spannbauer ) and lets just say the staff as a whole gave me the tools necessary to complete the course with minimal to almost no real struggle, if you really apply yourself, they will be there to assist you, to equip you with a life changing skill that will literally change your Life. Again I want to Say Thank you to the Thinkful Staff for guiding me through this Rough Rough Journey God Bless, I will make all of you Proud of my accomplishments. Read less

The support system is stable, and the community is excellent. Regardless of which Bootcamp you picked, the curriculum would be similar. It will give you the basics and different degrees of complexities. The thing that you can't fabricate is the community. I met excellent and supporting friends in my journey that I was so proud to be a part of it. The instructors and staff are my cheerleaders and therapist. You see, I'm working full time and a single mom, and you could imagine what type of hurdles comes my way. You won't be successful if you not have a sound support system with you. Thinkful has it all. Read less

The pros: 
I enjoyed my time at Thinkful and learned a lot. The instructors and TAs were great and really invested time in ensuring the students understanding and success. Dennis Tran was especially awesome - he's a wealth of knowledge and a FANTASTIC instructor. Genevieve with career coaching was very helpful and had me do a Crash profile which helped me land a job. 

The cons: 
The technical coaching was generally unhelpful. They were usually slow to respond and generally didn't actually answer the question in a way that made sense. The mentors were OK--some times a lot of help, but towards the end, unable to provide much support. The academic success manager was non-existent. 

Conclusion:
I'm glad I pursued data science with Thinkful and am incredibly grateful for the instructors that supported me as I learned the field. The job search post graduation was difficult. I found that most jobs were looking for years of experience and masters level+ education in a quantitative field. I have a BS in mathematics and an MBA, but found that this was just too little education for most jobs I applied for. If you don't have a data science background or adequate education, you really have to put yourself out there (cold calls, heavy follow up) to land a job. If you're willing to do something like Crash.co, you'll be able to land a job, even if you don't have an extensive background or education.  Read less

I started the engineering immersion course in January (with prep course work starting in November) and I had only completed Codecademy and a handful of other free guides before beginning Thinkful. It was a ton of work with students expected to put in work after (or before) "class" hours as well as on weekends, but you learn a lot and build a good junior portfolio by the time you graduate. I wish there was some more focus on testing, as much as students don't like it, it's a good way to get an entry level job in the field. Also, some sections felt quite imbalanced, like some days would be an impossible amount of homework and other days in the same week would have half days. But, overall the curriculum is very up to date and not the same information available on other free courses.

While I heard a few bad stories from some classmates about their mentors, most of our mentors (including my own!) were amazing resources that push you to solving problems and branching out to new things outside of class.

One piece of advice that I took during Thinkful was to spend the time to apply for jobs WHILE you're in the program and not wait until afterwards, it's what helped me find a job during a pandemic! Read less

Hello Everyone! I just finished my online bootcamp with Thinkful, specifically the Data Science Flex program. Honestly, I had an awesome experience with the program overall, and I was able to find job placement fairly quickly thanks to this program.

A little background on myself (for context): I am a mathematics and computer science major, and while my formal education was robust, it was mostly theoretical (which I love!) and I didn't see myself finding work quickly, at least not without a graduate degree. I had heard about some online bootcamps that teach practical skills to get the student job ready within x amount of time. After doing some research, I found that most bootcamps offer similar programs, and have similar payment options. That made choosing quite difficult. I had decided to go with Thinkful because a friend of mine had started the program in Software Engineering, and had only great things to say about the program. I'm glad I did!

My particular program was the Data Science Immersion, particularly because I had interest in Machine Learning and potentially Artificial Intelligence. Thinkful does a great job of touching all the key topics and theories that you need to know to get a solid foundation in Machine Learning. They start off with an in depth Python and SQL course as that is the language mostly used in the course. They follow that up with web scraping and a brief overview of accessing APIs. I felt that this was very beneficial as it allows students to learn skills that can be applied to roles other that "Data Scientist". Just being totally honest, not everyone is going to land a machine learning or data science gig from the get, and its good to have skills that can be applied in analytics and engineering roles as well.

After the Python and SQL course, they start going into the data science workflow, starting with data extraction and cleanup and then  covering Machine Learning concepts. This for me, was the best part of the course. They go VERY in depth into how the algorithms works, going as far as giving in depth explanations of the mathematics behind concepts like Logistic and Linear Regression, Clustering, etc. The math nerd in me loved this, and it helped me really understand what was happening underneath the hood of the algorithms being discussed. For the folks out there that aren't so mathematically inclined, most of the highly rigorous maths are optional, but I would strongly recommend familiarizing yourself with the concepts. After every topic was covered you completed a capstone or project that had you combing the internet for data that you can apply machine learning principles on. 

I will give one caveat to the learning done at this stage. While the lessons are quite in depth, Machine Learning and Data Science in general are such expansive topics that Thinkful only scratches the surface and establishes a solid foundation in these topics more than anything else. A LOT of personal research and education will have to accompany the program to learn the more high end stuff. Also, while the program does provide links for optional learning, I still recommend students doing research on their own to expand their knowledge on the topics covered. I do appreciate the fact that the program is quite transparent about this.

Also, all of this learning is done under the guidance of an experienced mentor, and this is arguably the best part of the program. The mentor provides real world perspective and teaches you all the tips and tricks that comes from years of work in the industry. They help provide context and clarity to a lot of the highly theoretical topics that the course touches on. Honestly there were time that I was incredibly stuck on a problem or capstone, and my mentor was the only way I was able to find any kind of clarity.

All in all, fantastic program. If you are an aspiring data scientist, I strongly recommend this program with the understanding that THIS PROGRAM IS NOT EASY, and there needs to be a lot of self motivation in order to be successful. The results however, are more than worth it!

Good luck to everyone! Read less

I just graduated from the Engineering Flex Program and I can't say enough great things about Thinkful. I originally chose Thinkful because I needed the flexibility to continue working full time. Thinkful was the only bootcamp out there that I could find that offered a fully remote, part time program in addition to one-on-one mentorship.

The mentorship was hands down the most valuable aspect of the program for me. I had 3 different mentors over the course of my program who each had their own areas of expertise and I loved them all. Although there is an option available to switch mentors if you find that you aren't clicking, I never needed to do so. The last mentor I was paired with, and who I worked with for the majority of my program, was incredibly talented and had tons of industry experience. No amount of curriculum can replace the years of experience that they bring. It was truly a rewarding and invaluable experience!

The curriculum is also really excellent. It is constantly updated with the latest technologies in mind and you can tell that it is designed to give graduates a leg up. They really strive to teach you industry best practices and hold your portfolio projects to a high standard so that you are prepared to be a strong candidate by the time you come out. Developers that I have interacted with outside of the program have been impressed by the quality of my code and the fact that my projects are hand built with vanilla CSS – two things that I owe to the excellent curriculum.

The only word of caution I have is that the flex program, which is intended to be part-time/self-paced, is actually a major time commitment that is realistically more like another full time job. I worked full time at a fairly demanding job while completing my program and I found that 6 months was not enough time to get what I wanted out of the program. Of course they do give you some pause time to use as you wish and my program manager was always there to give guidance and answer questions. I've also seen plenty of other students get through the 6 months with no problem, so I'm sure it depends on each person's situation and needs. I ended up extending my program month-to-month until I finished and invested most of that time working on my portfolio projects.

All in all an amazing experience that is worth all of the time, effort and money! Read less

I started this program being minimally self-taught, knowing the very basics of simple HTML and CSS. One month after I graduated from Thinkful's Full Stack Engineering Immersion program, I landed a full-time position as a Front-End Engineer with an innovative and diversified startup. I know without a doubt I would not be where I am today if I hadn't begun my journey with Thinkful. From the very first call I had with a Thinkful admissions rep to the last session with my career coach, I was consistently reminded that Thinkful genuinely cares for my success. This is what sets Thinkful apart from other boot camps - the PEOPLE. Every step of this journey, I was constantly impressed and blown away by the people I had the honor of working with and learning from. 

I was a part of the full-time, full-stack engineering immersion program. It was 100% remote (I believe all Thinkful courses are), which means you gain the invaluable skills of learning to pair program and work on a diverse team in a distributed environment. This is HIGHLY valuable to the workforce today as we see a multitude of companies switching to a remote model. It honestly was one of the best selling points as I began my job search post-graduation. On top of the amazing people in my cohort I got to go through the program with, the Thinkful staff is a huge selling point for this course. You work with the best of the best, seasoned technologists that you never get to stop learning from. 

During the course, you are paired with a mentor who you meet with two times a week. It's an amazing support system that helps you never feel alone. To this day, I keep in touch with my mentor and he has been monumental in setting my career in motion, both with the course material in the program and learning about the industry as a whole. You are also given even more support through the course TA's. These TA's are available to you throughout the program to ensure you're understanding the material to the best of your ability. And they are not just volunteering with nothing to give, they are top-notch individuals in the industry that are incredibly knowledgeable. If this isn't enough, Thinkful even has office hours open throughout the day to focus on certain parts of the course sections and provide assistance outside of normal class hours. I can't stress enough that if you use these support systems fully, you will make incredible strides in your time at Thinkful. 

This is the key thing with coding bootcamps - the mentality of choosing one shouldn't be thinking "which boot camp is going to make me a pro in the shortest amount of time,"  it should be more of "which one is going to lay out the foundation that sets me up for success." Thinkful does its part. The material is solid, the community is inspiring. The only missing part is you. And your ultimate success depends on what you put into it. Don't expect to just show up and come out as a professional engineer. You must show up engaged, ask questions, strive to understand the root of the concepts, utilize the resources you're given, and NEVER stop learning. Thinkful reinforces that this is the key to success. You just have to follow through and do it on your end too. 

All in all, when I look back to the time when I was searching for boot camps to join I remember endless researching and feeling so conflicted about where to go and what to choose. I am more than thankful that I went with Thinkful. The industry is constantly changing and I truly believe Thinkful does its best to keep up with those fluctuations. If you're still undecided or have hesitations, jump on to LinkedIn and search for Thinkful alumni. The Thinkful community is so strong and the majority of us are more than happy to share our stories and path of where we are today.  Read less

I recently graduated from Thinkful's Remote Flex Data Science course and was hired by a major company to do data engineering. I came into the program having completed Learn Python The Hard Way, some basic SQL, and signing up for DataCamp and HackerRank. I also have a strong math background which was helpful but not required for understanding the course's probability and statistics components. The Remote Flex course allowed me to work at my own pace through a structured curriculum, while also having access to 24/7 technical coaches via Slack and a twice-weekly meeting with my mentor. The course was definitely not easy, but I had plenty of support. The course starts you off by learning Python and SQL and then aims to provide exposure to many areas of data science including statistical significance testing, supervised and unsupervised machine learning, time-series analysis, neural networks, and big data. You're then able to specialize in a certain facet of the curriculum that you enjoyed the most. 

After finishing the course though your work has only just begun. The job search is its own beast and this is where I think Thinkful went from good to great for me. I was immediately paired with a highly competent and experienced career coach who set really solid expectations on what I should be doing in my search. She also had a team of Thinkful career folks connecting with companies that were hiring. It was through one of these connections that I landed my job. 

Overall, Thinkful provided me with a streamlined process for changing careers and I couldn't be happier with the end result.  Read less

Prior to the program, I had work experience with Excel and a little bit of experience studying SQL and Python. I really wanted to move my career in a more technical direction, but didn't know how to start. I had a little bit of exposure to Data Analytics, but not enough technical skillset to get the job. As much as I was eager to learn, for a technical job, you always need the experience to get the job and you also need a job to get experience, so I decided to sign up for this program! 

I found it through a Google search and what drew me in the most was their tuition guarantee for a job. I am so glad that I found and finished this program. I was able to get hands-on experience in Excel, SQL, Tableau and Python and feel more confident with my data analysis and presentation skills. The program is very well-structured with an organized curriciulum. My Academic Success Manager was always quick to reply back to all my questions about the course. My current mentor is also very encouraging and offers amazing insights on real world application. I loved the Slack community, especially the technical coaches - they were so nice and always made sure my questions were thoroughly answered. While anything nowadays can be learned online, I feel like doing a bootcamp is better because of the certification and doing projects that are relevant that has been reviewed by someone who can give feedback is so important. I'll be moving on to the career phase of this program and I'm impressed so far about the resources they provide!  Read less

I did the flex program which is essentially 100% remote. I worked a full time job during the program and managed to finish 2 weeks earlier than expected. I would definitely do it again. I did have a small amount of coding experience but none in the languages used in this course. 

They give you a mentor who you speak to 2 times a week. Mine was awesome and I got alot of help from him. 

You also have an online slack channel where you can ask questions , which I used quite a bit when I got stuck. This was all I felt was needed to complete projects. 

The course was decently written and had some issues at times, but overall I had no problems with it. They are just teaching you what you need for an entry level job so I didn't expect them to go in depth on advanced topics. 

I was able to get a full time job before I even graduated. This was definitely due to the program because my capstones were the focus of all my interviews. I would make sure to spend alot of your time on these.

Since I got a job before I graduated I never used the career services. I heard these are good, but I wouldn't take my word on it.  Read less

The thing that really made this bootcamp completely worth the money was the people that I had a chance to work with. From my technical mentor to my career coach, I really felt cared for and like they had my best interest at heart. It is definitely one of those things where you are going to get out of the program the amount of effort you put in, but if you are willing to put in the time you will learn so much. I have heard that there are a lot of bootcamps that just throw you out into the job search once you have completed the curriculum, but that is not the case with Thinkful. My career coach guided me through all of the steps of the job hunt and was always there to give me support when I felt like giving up.

All in all, I can't recommend this bootcamp enough. It is hard and at sometimes frustrating, but 100% worth the money. Read less

I graduated from Thinkful's Data Analytics Flex program in late March and was recently hired for a new position -- I had an overall excellent experience with the program! The curriculum is comprehensive and rigorous, focusing on Excel, SQL, Tableau, and Python. These are core skills for any data analyst; Excel and Python are especially emphasized, and you will mainly use these to complete three capstone projects throughout the course. Although a little bit more weight could be placed on SQL and Tableau, i.e. requiring their use for independent projects, the curriculum provides a solid foundation for all of these tools; students could easily apply them to their own separate projects if desired.

The instructors are great; you get paired with a mentor for 1-1 sessions twice a week, and an academic success manager whom you meet with every 1-2 months or so. Both my mentor and success manager were very helpful and responsive. After completing the curriculum, you get paired with a career coach for up to six months of career assistance; this stage requires you to apply for jobs and participate in networking activities. I did really appreciate Thinkful's job guarantee, as it demonstrates their confidence in landing new roles for their graduates. Thinkful is currently providing added support in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, which I also really appreciate and believe will be very beneficial to students and recent graduates.

All in all, I loved my experience with Thinkful and greatly appreciate the education, guidance, and support they provided me in my career transition! Read less

I attended Thinkful's Engineering Nights and Weekend course. I graduated in May 2020. I would not hesitate to recommend Thinkful. I originally chose Thinkful because of the tech stack that they teach (JavaScript, Node, React, Express, SQL). I choose that tech stack because that is most common for the jobs I see listed here in the bay area and what I'm interested in. I made a great choice. I learned a lot through blood, sweat, and tears. What else I really like about Thinkful is they really want to see you succeed. You are assigned a Project Manager as well as a Mentor. What else I loved was being in a cohort with other students. My cohort was amazing and I learned as much as I did with my classmates as I did with my instructors.

I feel I got a well-rounded exposure to a full-stack web environment in a supportive environment. In order to help you succeed here are a few things I wish I would have known going in:

* Have down the basics of JavaScript before you start. There is a JavaScript module, but you really need to go in having a good solid base. If you are new to coding or JavaScript, I recommend doing work (either from free resources or find a good low priced Udemy class) until you are really comfortable with the basics (writing a function, what is an object, array's, etc.). 

* After each section, you will be tested. The test will consist of verbal questions and live coding. Make sure you are comfortable with both. I get very nervous so I wish I would have known that. That being said, while they can be nerve-wracking, they are exactly what interviews in a real-world environment are like so these are really helping to prepare you!

* If you get a mentor that you don't feel you connect with it is perfectly ok to ask for a different one. This happened to me. My original mentor while good, did not meet my needs. I requested a new mentor and I was assigned a new one right away. He was amazing! 

* Make the most of your mentoring sessions. If you don't have anything that you want to ask your mentor for help with in a session, ask for drills that you can do, etc. Never go in without a plan of something you want to work on. While the mentor is there to help, you must drive your own learning. So if you don't need help, you could go in and ask, I want to get better at X, can you give me some drills to do, or can we talk about X. 

* Coding is hard and you will swear and be frustrated often. This is normal. Just do not give up. Get up, take a break, and get back to it. If you are stuck you have mentors, classmates and technical coaches that are there to help.

* Get comfortable with troubleshooting and doing research. I see a lot of new students asking questions, such as "I can't get into X site". Did you open Dev. tools and see if there is an error, did you try a different browser, did you clear your cache, did you restart your machine, etc. If you are having problems troubleshooting getting into a site, how are you going to feel troubleshooting when your code is not working. I do realize this is a new skill for some people so it is not meant as a criticism. If you are new to tech and not really familiar with troubleshooting problems, I would do some reading on how to do that. It really will help you in all areas.

 * Give as much as you get. There is a vibrant Slack community of students. Try to get to know other people and contribute where you can. I'm a big believer in giving back where you can. Read less

The curriculum was well written, making new concepts easily digestible. The instructors were great at bridging the gap between my theoretical knowledge and what I would need to be successful professionally. The career assistance was very helpful when it came to preparing application materials and were directly involved in helping me land my first role. Overall a very positive experience. Read less

Overall, I can genuinely say that I had a great time while enrolled at Thinkful (Bloc was acquired). I used to be in Customer Success/Experience with early-stage startups and although I've been exposed to working in tech, there was still so much to learn about UX/UI Design. 

Curriculum: Bloc/Thinkful had won me over with its reasonable price and robust curriculum. A lot of other bootcamps during the time that I was researching didn't offer to teach frontend fundamentals and Thinkful did. In addition to this, I liked the idea of it being self-paced which meant that I could finish earlier than the ideal time frame (they gave me a 12-month timeframe but I completed the program in 6 months). 

The reading materials are easy to understand and follow. They also provide video for some of the modules which was perfect for me since I learned by following. Links to external resources have also been great to have (and I still find myself referring back to some of them) and are plenty. 

You'll also receive guidance throughout the program in the form of a mentor. I think that this was incredibly important toward my growth as a designer. Luckily, I had 1 mentor, Mike Dekker, from start to finish (I've heard horror stories from others that they've had to switch or weren't happy with the ones they've been assigned with). Mike's someone who I thought was so inspiring and incredibly helpful - I mean, the guy's got around 14-16 years of UX/UI and illustration experience so it was great to have him teach me neat tricks and learn about the "real world" through his stories. 

That being said, the program is not a walk in the park and you really have to put in the work. If you're the type of person who relies heavily on collaboration and hand holding, this program may not be for you. Although I did have a wonderful mentor, our meetings were limited to 30 minutes per week. Though Thinkful offers design critique sessions, workshops and technical coaches, I know for a fact that I still had to do a lot of self-study and research. Again, there's nothing wrong with wanting to learn from a teacher you see regularly and having content/instructions handed to you but it's crucial to know what you're getting into at Thinkful and if it fits your learning style. 

Career Support: Just like the curriculum, I hit the jackpot again when I got Elyse Yarnell as a career coach. She taught me additional things that the job hunt portion of the curriculum didn't tackle and was really supportive through the entire job hunt process. I feel that Los Angeles is a tougher environment for junior designers so it meant a lot to me to feel like I had someone cheering me on and giving me advice. 

Areas of Opportunity: I think that the experience would've been even better if Thinkful can find away for future graduates to be a part of some sort of remote internship since I feel that this would increase the student's chance of gaining employment faster after graduating. Tech coaches and graders could definitely improve by maintaining consistency in the way they grade projects/assignments and answer students through the Slack channel (I've found that some are on it and points me the right direction and others just question me and go around in circles). Last but not the least, I think that they should set expectations for students. I've found that a lot of students drop out because they aren't aware that the program mimics what is out there in the real world (no one really holds your hand and you have to seek answers for yourself). If this expectation is set clearly, it'll help filter students who are willing to put in the work and self-study and drive students who aren't willing to do so to another bootcamp that offers in-person teaching and immediate assistance.

Wrap-up: It took a while for me to get a job since I had several hiccups (personal reasons + the pandemic) but I recently accepted a position as a UX/UI Designer. We're going through such strange times that it feels odd to feel ecstatic but I don't feel guilty for saying this - I'm so happy to have gone through this experience with Thinkful and owe so much to my mentor, graders and coach for getting me to where I am today.  Read less

I just finished the Data Science Flex course and recommend it for any motivated person who wants to update their analytics skill set in a remote learning environment. The operative term is MOTIVATED. You have to self-discipline and motivation to get through the program because you are not learning in a class where you can ask instructors questions in real time and it’s much easier to fall of the face of the Earth in an online format. If you aren’t a self-starter and have the will power to keep yourself on task, you won’t make it through.
As a former college professor who has taught both in person and online, I have been on the both sides of the learning experience and prefer in person courses because they are more conducive to higher quality learning. But, I was not in a position to enroll in a bootcamp in person nor was I in a position to take a full time course for 12 weeks. Thinkful was appealing for three reasons: it provided you with a mentor who was a senior data scientist and you would meet twice a week during the course, it provided a lot of other online support like virtual office hours with other senior data scientists and Slack channels with technical coaching support, and it was part-time with a flexible schedule. 
On balance, I had a great experience and learned a ton. The mentor program is its strongest feature because with a good mentor you have someone whom you can regularly ask questions about anything related to what you are doing in the course (including career advice). Your mentor also keep you on schedule for two reasons: 1) you don’t want to waste their time, and 2) they can help get out of ruts when you are struggling with projects. My mentor was outstanding and helped me a lot. My biggest problem was often with syntax and python basics that I would forget and they always provided helpful code. 
The material is text-based with examples and walkthroughs. They don’t provide lectures or seminars. You must be someone who learns by reading and doing to master the material. I am one of those people, but you may not be. If you prefer video instruction, you may not get as much out of the program. I, along with other students I was in touch with throughout the course went to YouTube for extra guidance or alternative explanations to help clarify some things. Be prepared, however, to do extra reading on your own on a regular basis. I think that you’ll probably do that in any bootcamp course you take. 
You pay around $8,000 for six months in the program with 42 days of pause time. Once you sign up, you get a customized schedule with deadlines to help keep you on pace. Pause time allows you to temporarily stop the schedule for a period of time and push your deadlines back in case you are behind, work gets crazy, or you need to break to clear your head. 
 Other strengths:

• Most of the material (80-85%) was accessible and focused on showing you how to apply what you’re learning. They provided enough theoretical and conceptual material so you got the big idea, but the highest quality materials made code accessible to newbies.
• Technical coaching support was always great. Coaches are patient and stick with you until the problem is solved, regardless of how long it takes to figure things out.
• Online office hours and other support: Mentors holding office hours were always outstanding and very helpful. 
• “Pause time”: they give you 42 days of “pause time,” where you can pause your timeline and get deadlines pushed back. You might get behind at some point and this is your option to 
• Administration: you get an Academic Success Manager who acts like a counselor throughout the course and is there for help related to anything but data-science specific issues. ASMs were always pretty good about supporting you through tough times that were outside of your control. For example, people got extra pause time during the pandemic. 
• You choose a specialty at the end where you dig a little deeper on a topic of your interest and that serves as the basis for your final capstone project. This is something for you and your mentor to figure out together. 
• Career Support: You get six months with a career coach to help you find a job, but they require a lot of work. I can’t say more since I am just entering that phase. 

Weaknesses

• Some of the material was not so clear. You would occasionally come across a subsection where the concept was not broken down very well or the code explanation was glib and you needed to do a lot of outside reading to figure things out. Or, the explanations about the concept and code were both pretty shallow yet there was a big leap between that and what you were required to do for the accompanying assignment. That didn’t happen often, but did so occasionally. Unfortunately for me, I specialized in NLP and the material was incomplete, requiring me to do read a lot of extra material to bring me up to speed. This caused me to take longer than I wanted to for the final project. It worked out OK in the end, but this was pretty frustrating. From my own discussions with other students, this does was not the case with other specialization modules, thankfully.

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I was hesitant to start a bootcamp when there were many indications that the field was saturated with bootcamp grads, yet I went through with it and can say that it was well worth it. The Thinkful bootcamp was great and informative and I learned a lot. There were times when it got rough and I lost focus but my mentor and my academic success manager helped me through it and I got to where I am today with their help. The community is great as a whole and I've made a few peer connections that I hope will help as I go about my coding journey. They have so many great resources and people there to help you out that I didn't for once think about withdrawing. I'm starting the next phase, the job search, and they have even more resources available to help me with that. If you are looking at bootcamps, I would highly recommend giving Thinkful a shot. Read less

I researched which boot camp to choose for months, overall I chose Thinkful primarily for two reasons:
1) If you complete the within 7 months (6 is the standard) and you do not get a job 6 months after that, your tuition will be reimbursed.
2) The mentorship.

After beginning Thinkful, getting ahead in the course, then falling way, way, way behind in the course, to finally finishing it by the grace of God. I will say that there are many more pros than I originally expected.

Pros:

1) The curriculum is amazing! I wish my textbooks in school were written with the simple, easy to understand, and straight forward style of Thinkful's curriculum. Some assignments are graded, which is awesome because it's helpful to get feedback on what you're doing wrong and when you're doing something right.

2) The mentor sessions were really helpful, being obligated to meet with a mentor twice a week holds you accountable and having an experienced developer who can answer your questions is also helpful and a great source of support. Also, if you don't like your mentor you can switch mentors, and they are very flexible with their schedules, I work an 11 am - 8 pm shift and surprisingly they were able to accommodate that with two separate mentors.

3) The structure of the course, this ties in with point number 1, but I have to stress this. I attended a university and was majoring in computer science, I know many types of developers and had been programming for years (Python, Java, C++, aka nothing related to web dev) before entering this course. One of the main reasons why I decided to go the route of "boot camp" instead of "self-taught" is because I had no clue about what stack I should learn, what exactly about these frameworks do I need to focus on, how to use git and just other simple facets of developing that they don't teach you in school and really isn't too important when you're doing things on your own. However, now looking back, Thinkful taught me all the tech and concepts that I needed. They set me on the right path and gave me strong foundations. No boot camp will take you from zero to Junior level, but Thinkful really put me in a spot to succeed! From the ordering of the curriculum that they teach you to the capstones (projects) that they have you complete and add to your portfolio. Everything that Thinkful has you do in the course to build your resume or your skills/understanding. There is no pointless/wasted time. 

4) Program managers, along with mentors, program managers really help shed light on your progress in the course and will level with you on what you need to do to be successful in it. This was especially crucial for me since I fell far behind in the course (not because the content was difficult).

5) Pause time, Thinkful has a very generous amount of pause time (over a month worth of pause time I believe), not to mention the free Holiday pause time that will be given out. 

6) Technical support, Thinkful provides support 7 days a week on slack. You can ask any web dev related questions and the technical support group will help you solve any issues with your code (installing software, issues with understanding a data structure, or help you deploy your website).

7) At the end of the course you have a professional portfolio (with projects), resume, LinkedIn page, GitHub with almost 30 repositories, and continued support from the careers coaches.


Cons:

1) The price, it's not cheap, although you get what you pay for. If you can dedicate the time, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to finish the course before 6 months is up (the sooner you complete the less money you pay).

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