Thinkful

I’ve always been interested in data science, but with little to no background in CS and already having been out of college and working for several years, I found it a bit daunting to consider making a career change, start a bootcamp and still continue working at the start time. While it certainly hasn’t been easy, the support Thinkful provided to me through my mentor, the community and the endless number of resources has been wonderful. It’s definitely a lot of work and time management is key to stay on track, but the flexibility of the program has allowed me to adjust my schedule to allow of everything else I have to do outside of the classwork. Meeting with my mentor twice a week helps keep me accountable, while the slack channels and Q&A/workshop sessions are incredible resources to tap into all throughout the week. This program is intense and definitely a big investment of your time and money, but so far for me I’m thrilled I decided to make the jump and am really looking forward to my development as a future data scientist as the program progresses. Would absolutely recommend!

I've got about a month left in my bootcamp and I gotta say I've probably learned more in these past few months than I could have alone. The curriculum is really streamlined to give you the most important details and best practices, that otherwise on my own I would have to spend a bunch of time researching what to actually learn, which is a huge time sink. Especially since I'm doing the part-time program, after working my full time job, I really only have 2-3 hours a day. So every minute is valuable. That being said, the curriculum can't possibly teach you everything, but it's a good starting point to let you branch off and help you know what you should be learning. If you are planning on attending a bootcamp, Thinkful's part time is great choice. But make no mistake, part time doesn't mean half the effort, if you want to do well in the bootcamp and as a web developer in the industry you gotta give 100%.

I am more than half way through the full stack flex bootcamp through Thinkful and it has been a great experience so far. The course has progressed through a lot of interesting and useful content in an intuitive way that makes it easier to learn and build on knowledge. I work full time as a product manager and everyday at work I am able to connect things I’ve learned in the bootcamp to development being done by the software engineers I work with every day. The two mentors I’ve had have been very engaged and always ready to answer questions and help me if I get stuck or just want to learn more. Besides always having a dedicated mentor to help with students through the content, every student also has a designated project manager who helps guide a student through anything administrative and is the go to person for any questions or advice about the course. Even though I’m not done with the course just yet, I have already learned so much and can build out my own full stack web apps now. Besides the basics, Thinkful teaches up and coming topics such as react and node so students are up to date with knowledge. The career management resources are also very helpful and connect work being done in the bootcamp to the overall goal of getting a job in software engineering. I have completed 3 of the mock interviews and with the combination of live coding challenges as well as classic interview behavioral questions they are a great way to practice interviewing as the bootcamp progresses. I have had a great experience so far and am looking forward to getting through the rest of the content and starting a career as a software engineer utilizing all the I have learned through Thinkful both technically and professionally. 

I'm about half-way through my Bootcamp experience as a Fullstack Flex student, and although it's been very challenging at times. I'm impressed with my skills now compared to a few months ago. I started out as a somewhat coding newbie and my mind has flexed muscle I didn't even know it could! I can't wait to finish up the course in 3 months and I'm beyond excited for where this journey will take me. The best advise I can give is, if you're on the fence about applying just go for. As long as you put in the time, work and effort, you will succeed. 

I enrolled at this place because of the personal mentoring. I read the negative reviews and knew going in that the mentor would make or break the experience. I decided to trust Thinkful, that even the worst mentors could not be that bad. I was wrong. Among the mentors I've had: one was completely useless - he would show up to our sessions like he was high. I would have to repeat myself several times before he attempted to answer my questions otherwise he was silent and staring at the screen for the next hour. He only got upset and started berating me when I tried to log off because he probably wouldn't get paid for the session. Another mentor I had kept bringing up my gender. How, as a woman, I need to have more confidence - every session I've had with this ahole started off with a lecture about how I have impostor syndrome when I just wanted someone to help me troubleshoot an error in my project. I tried to placate him and agree, but he would not move on until he finished his 15 minute speech. And yet another one would make passive-aggressive remarks about how women should be in the kitchen ha ha

I ended up on slack more often because my mentors would not respond to my emails and learned more from the grads online. I eventually confided in others that I did not feel comfortable because of my mentor and boy was I surprised when I found out that not only was this normal, but that no matter how many times students complained about the lack of professionalism and the lack of knowledge (there are mentors that don't know a single thing about js, despite it being the principal language for your projects), the offending employees could never be fired. One of the mentors was even caught giving wrong answers to his student several times so the student would have to spend extra weeks figuring out what happened, only for the mentor to insist there was a "misunderstanding" at the next session. That's an extra $35 per hour for the mentor and weeks lost to the student. Easy way for the student to fall behind and pay another $2000 to extend the program and mentor access - good for Thinkful and explains why this mentor hasn't been fired.

The curriculum itself is set up so that if you don't have some background in programming, you are going to fail to finish in 6 months. html and css are easy to bypass which is why they can afford to offer the trial period but once you get to js, you are rushed through everything with no foundation. The exercises are limited and the content becomes overly vague. Thinkful offers outside resources in the beginning, but stops around js and in turn, slack is always full of requests for outside material because nobody understands what's going on. You have no teachers if you do not get a good mentor. You are reading and doing everything by yourself. Every section has a button for reporting spelling errors and issues with set up or unclear instructions. You do not get alerted to content changes and even mentors on slack will be surprised at how something was deleted and not know when the content was changed.

Thinkful also offers office hours and workshops and if they aren't cancelled last minute with no explanation, you take a gamble and go to the session. The good tutors have a long line, the bad ones are practically empty because they never know how to answer questions.

The interviews after every section are a joke. The reading does not prepare you adequately and the interviews ask more in-depth questions that do not reflect the rigor in the curriculum. If you fail the same interview twice, they give you an exercise to do but I have seen several students post the question and get the answer on slack.

The only winners here are the company taking your money and the predatory mentors who take advantage of the students and Thinkful's perks.

Here are the problems with Thinkful:

For $1500 per month, you get to meet with an assigned mentor about 2-4 hours per week.  All other learning is done on your own.  My mentoer actually told me in the first week that I should add some other inexpensive courses from Other online sources to help guide me as well.  What??  Its like the teachers at your college telling you also to enroll in another college at the saem time because their time is limited to actually teach you. 

In addition to the 2-4 ohours per week with your mentor (again you are paying 1500 per month for this) You also get Access to randomly scheduled chat rooms to sit in line and hope you can get to a chat room mentor, so you can ask specific questions and SOMETIMES get helpful answrers, which you have to do in about 5-10 minutes because others are in line in the chat room breathing down your back. 

Ask UP FRONT EXACTLY WHO guides you in the employemnt search when you finish.  Then ask exactly HOW they guide you.  Fact is, 'guidance' from them means You pretty much do everything on your own, and someone just checks in to make sure you are meeting their emplyment search guidleines defined in the their 'money-back 6-month job placement gaurantee'.  If you miss a guideline or requirement one week, they are examplt from having to reund your money and honoring their gaurantee.  

The online instruction is all just reading material on a page and then triying to satisfy the project requirements, which get more complicated at the end.  Try to writ edown all your questions for when you meet your mentor 2-4 hours heach week. 

Your 'advisor' may contact you and tell you at the very start of the program that, even though the program is 6 months, you can always take 7, 8, or 9 months to really learn more deeply, because "Many of our students do that to really learn the subject matter.".  If you do this however, know that they don't not have to honor their job palcement gaurantee because they don't tell you this up front.    

Many of the mentors are from overseas which is no problem, but they are difficult to understand because of heavy accents.  And forget about THEM leading YOU in practicing, rather it is YOUR job to come up with questions to ask THEM.  Otherwise, they just sit back and let the clock tick as you struggle and pay month after month.

Honestly, I know a lot of reviews here are organized and strageized marketing reviews written by people connected to their own staff and comany.  But as a former student who found other ways to learn the material more scucessfully and become a developer, I would avoid Thinkful for now - until they make some major improvements.  --As of Septmeber 2018.  

I started this program with broken promises. Before enrolling the school GUARANTEED  A FULL TIME JOB  OR A FULL REFUND. None of it has happened. The first month was great the easy stuff. The months moving forward I was assigned about 7 different mentors. Reasons being they did not know javascript or they would direct me to google.  A lot of times the mentors would complain about the low rate of pay. The Q & A sessions offered are even worse, the mentors pick and choose who they want to work with. If they didn't like you or if you did not meet a certain requirement they would again point you to google or say they don't know the subject matter.  About 75 % of the Q & A's I registered for were cancelled, no reason was given.  The curriculum is dated and old it is a lot of reading and more reading. The mentors are not experienced at all. They just come to collect  a paycheck and update their skills on the expense of the students. The school does not monitor the mentor sessions or the Q & A sessions which are just a waste of time. The slack channel your questions will go unanswered or if they answer it they will shame you and point you to an article on how to ask questions. I was not a professional programmer I was a student looking to learn.   This program is not designed  for students to be successful. Not a single assignment was graded or was any feedback given. I was given a pacing guide on month 8 of the program. 
 The statics show a 98% success rate  which makes sense. If you go above the 6 months they will forcefully withdraw you to keep the data looking good. 
Save yourself the time and money go buy the same course on udemy for $10 bucks. Employers do not look at education they look what can you build. The stuff learned here I was not even able to get a UNPAID internship. 

I've just completed my first month in the Fullstack Flex program.  It's been a great experience and the amount of knowledge presented has exceeded my expectations.  Besides their own course materials, which is extensive, they provide additional resources throughout each unit.  Some of these resources have become my favorite websites to frequent.

Even though it's flexible and go your own pace, there is just enough structure to keep you focused, disciplined, and motivated.  I've tried some other tutorials and self study web programs, but the difference maker with Thinkful is the industry wide support staff.

The mentors I've been assigned are experienced and very motivated to help you succeed.  They provide a nice balance to the solo course work.   There are a variety of Q&A sessions available at nearly all hours of the day and a very active Slack channel which is to say you always have support from staff and students.

Overall, I have enjoyed Thinkful so far. I've been a student for a couple of months and have found the course material valuable. The curriculum is very heavy in reading so I think it's worth considering how you learn and whether or not that feels like the right style for you. With that said, it does provide a good outline of topics for you to go research on your own and then you can use the curriculum as supplemental.

The Q&A sessions, along with the Workshops, are very helpful. I think this is what sets Thinkful apart from just going off and learning on your own. It's game-changing to have a person you can ask questions to, and with Thinkful, you also get a one-on-one mentor. I had two mentors who didn't show when they said they would on a few occasions so it started out rough but Thinkful was accommodating and extended my graduation date due to the mentor absences. I'm now paired with a great mentor who has helped me a lot. 

I would recommend Thinkful to somebody considering it but would caution them to consider what learning style is best for them. I do think anybody could be successful with Thinkful, however; the human element really helps to get you through difficult learning curves.