Thinkful

This was a very inclusive and well rounded educational journey done virtually. I was facing a lot of challenges last year (as we all were) in 2020 and at some point down the line decided that I needed to try something new,: learn and polish up some new and existing skill sets. Thinkful (A.K.A Bloc.io) coursework fit right into what I resonated with.  The mentors, Academic Success Team, and connections with other "classmates" via Slack made everything even more inclusive even without it being in-person. 

Even when I was facing some pretty heavy life circumstances, my mentor and Academic success team helped me through while making me accountable. So understanding and supportive. 

As for the coursework, it was self paced and seemed to be inclusive of all learning styles. It was a good mix of hands on, readings, and videos. There was also group sessions available almost everyday for your to jump in if you just needed to watch, listen, or have another expert help you with a project or module you were working on. 

Not only that, but Thinkful had an expert chatroom that would connect you with a curriculum expert on the fly if you weren't able to jump into a group session. 

After graduation, you will still have connections with the Career Sucess Team to land a job and polish up your interviewing skills.

So many options to be successful and reach your goal. 

Thank you, Thinkful. 

I signed up for the course after going the self-teaching route for a few months. While self-teaching I would often find myself going down various rabbit holes or jumping between languages or frameworks thinking that I somehow had to cram massive amounts of information into my brain. Here's what I've come to realize - there's more information in the world of programming than you could possibly master in a lifetime, and most developers only really grasp small pieces of it at a time in order to solve a problem at hand.

That brings me to where I found value in the course: it focused me on understanding the fundamentals of one aspect of programming, developing applications for the web browser. There's a sizeable market for this particular skill right now, and Thinkful did the work of figuring out which technologies are in-demand and guiding me in practicing them. There's a much higher value proposition in mastering one specific area of development than in trying to be a jack-of-all-trades.

The curriculum is well-written, well-paced, and well-structured. It was definitely the highlight for me. I didn't use the lectures or Q&A a whole lot, simply because there are so many high quality resources available on the web already that are hard to compete with. I found I understood something better by reading the MDN docs than by listening to someone talk about it on a video conference. However that might be particular to my temperament - someone else might prefer to talk to someone.

Mentor and Program Manager meetings happened weekly and were good for accountability, as well as for forcing me to clarify my understanding of concepts into words.  I tried using the Technical Coaching a few times, but found that in the time it takes to explain a technical problem to someone it's usually faster to just figure it out for myself. I also engaged in discussions with other students on slack, which I often found to be valuable. If there's one thing I'd change, it would be to emphasize pair-programming more in the course. So learn from my mistake, and drag some fellow students into pair-programming sessions.

TLDR; I had a good experience with Thinkful. They provided me with solutions to my weaknesses: structure, focus, and marketing myself to HR departments. But definitely start with self-teaching and be absolutely sure that you enjoy spending hours of your day working on code and figuring things out before you sign up for a bootcamp. A bootcamp won't make you a developer, but it can be a useful tool in your journey to make yourself a developer.

If you have are interested in making a career change and are looking to work in the web development industry, Thinkful is the place for you. With very limited exposure to programming in the past, I was able to create two full-stack applications and several other web apps. This program is certainly challenging and at times frustrating(*debugging*), but it is every bit worth it if you have a passion for programming and solving puzzles. The career training I received from this program as well as the knowledge I obtained over the course of 8 months, has allowed me to pursue a career in web development. I was able to get a job within this industry just three months after graduating. I am very happy and grateful that this program was referred to me. If you're looking to turn your career around, take a look into Thinkful's programs. See if there's a fit!

My overall experience with Thinkful was fantastic.  I really enjoyed the coursework and felt like I learned an incredible amount in 5 months.  I was also paired with a great career coach who really helped me get a job (during covid!).  One caveat about my experience though is that I had previous experience coding.  I'd been doing it for about two years full time in Java when the primary language for the Bootcamp was Javascript.  I felt like my prior experience really helped me spring board my learning.  If I didn't know how to code prior to the camp, I worry that I would have spent a lot of sleepless nights and not absorbed the information they gave us as fully as I did.  If you are thinking about starting this Bootcamp, I highly recommend studying heavily beforehand.  The instructors and mentors are very supportive and will help, but nothing beats raw coding experience.  Knowing the basics will save you a lot of all-nighters and help you focus on learning architecture and data structures/algorithms.

Finally, my only complaint was with one instructor in particular.  I don't think it's his fault because the Bootcamp allowed his methodology but this one instructor LITERALLY JUST POSTED A VIDEO OF HIMSELF CODING and that was his lesson.  He did not answer questions for long periods of time (probably afk) or even appear on camera to say hello.  Our cohort was fortunate enough to only have him for a couple of days before switching to someone else, but this was NOT OKAY.  I paid for a curated education and support system.  If I wanted to just watch videos, then I would have just bought Youtube premium and saved myself $16000.

Right now, the video lessons are not the norm, but I asked my mentor, and it seems like the Bootcamp is experimenting with the approach.  Let me just say that if they do with this approach, I would not recommend this Bootcamp. But as it stands now, I heartily recommend it.

I choose Thinkful because of several reasons. One reason was that I was looking to learn to React as the framework in their curriculum and this program was one of them. And then learning about Node, Express, and Postgresql was amazing. I also liked to structure of how the curriculum is designed. It is expected that you know the fundamentals of JavaScript, HTML/CSS before you start and if you don't, they have prep for that. Once you get a hang of the fundamentals, the real learning begins then. That was the curriculum I wanted. The second reason was the schedule. Since I still had to work and with my commitments to my family, I knew I had to sign up for a part-time program (they call it flex there). It was more self-paced than part-time. There are no live videos, and you do not belong to a set cohort (they had registration starting every Wednesday) but other than that you get to have everything the full-time students. they are also on a set schedule (something like from 8 am to 6 pm every day etc.) I liked the self-pace because I could spend as much time as I want on a new subject, learn the ins and outs, and practice as much while I can practice and glance at the topics I already know. Don't get me wrong, there are checkpoints in almost every step, and more than enough assignments are graded. So you have to pass them to move forward. Now comes the last part (or rather the first I listed in the title), the support. I started with the 15-day trial they had and even in that trial, they assigned me a mentor on the second day and we were expected to meet once a week (this becomes twice a week once you are done with the trial and register). Honestly, I am very grateful for the mentor I had, he was somebody who had 20 years of experience in the field (their mentors are engineers that work at other companies who chooses to be a mentor, and they are located anywhere in the world). I got a mentor before even I started to pay, can you imagine. I felt that they value support more than anything else. Then you have technical help, you use a chat tool to ask your questions (within the work hours but it was like 7am to 10pm) and almost always somebody answers. (I said that because I had answers to all of my questions but I heard people sometimes not getting answers). Then they have office hours (had I should say because near my graduation they removed it) where you could just join a video call and ask your question about the pre-determined subject and the lead will help you find a solution. They also had workshops and student presentations you could join anytime and just listen and learn a few things. Their AMA sessions were my favorite. (Again, they decided to re-design that concept near my graduation so it may not be there anymore). Another support and was really my go-to one was the Slack group. All the instructors, coaches, mentors, students, and alumni are on their Slack group and you could just ask a question and there is always somebody answers it, most of than not, it was other students which was great for peer learning but alumni jumped in and helped from time to time. On slack, you could also learn about personal experiences from alumni and how their professional life is after the program. Lastly, you have one assigned Academic Success Manager and they are your last resort if you couldn't find the support you needed and my ASM was awesome, she got what I needed sometimes faster than expected. You also check in with your ASM every month and bimonthly to go over your progress and graduation schedule and if you have any concerns.So for those reasons, I am so grateful that I chose Thinkful and I am so happy to know that I graduated. Onto the job search now

What's incredible about Thinkful's process is what a strong emphasis there is on becoming a really strong coder, in SQL and particularly in Python. I spent about 90% of my time with Thinkful each week (which was a lot) hands on with coding, and pretty early on (I'd say at about the 1/4 or 1/3 mark) the significant majority of that coding time was in open-ended projects where I was expected to show a large degree of independence. At the same time, I was saved from wasting my time on bugs and other issues, beyond the first 20–30 minutes where working on the bug was actually informative, so that nearly all the time I was coding and working on projects I was building skills in an efficient way. There were data scientists available at all times to work with me personally on bugs, statistical questions, or any other issues, in addition to my bi-weekly meetings with Mark Peterson (a data science manager at Alliance Data)  assigned to me. In addition, I worked with Jay Padhya (a data scientist at Fiat Chrysler) to critique each of my projects, and while for each one I had gotten the resources I needed to perform really well, he would also give me more suggestions for how I could stengthen my work or add depth in whatever way, be it with visualizations, hyperparameter tuning, or what have you. My mentor, Mark, was great not only with the details of ML and data cleaning, tools from Sci-kit Learn, etc, and pushing me to include more to make my projects more robust, but also being really clear about what's valuable about a project to a business or organization to make sure everything I was working from the get-go was creating value. All the time I spent with mentors was really high-quality because it was 1-on-1, which prepared me in a more direct way for a workplace context compared to the classroom setting typical at some bootcamps. I came out of Thinkful with way more expertise and confidence in my coding and modeling skills than I thought would have been possible, and the support they gave me basically made me more excited at the end of the process than at the beginning and eager to take on bigger challenges.

My experience with Thinkful was really positive. I wanted a career change and I was lost on how or where to start from. I decided to start googling and checking to see what my options were since going back to a university wasn’t one. So in 2019 I have decided to start in a bootcamp. I was a Mechatronic Engineering dropout (years ago) and I had some contact with programming back in the day so programming wasn’t so uncharted territory. The question that I was stumbled upon was: which one? There are so many options out there! Well, it took me months and a lot of research to finally pick Thinkful and I will tell you why it was the best decision I have made. One of the things that was important for me was the technology itself that was being taught. I didn’t want to learn half old technology that I might use and half I would. On the courses I have seen on Thinkful they were all cutting edge and excellent for the market, as I researched openings in my area to see what kind of technology they were searching for. Secondly, I was deciding between remote or not. Remember, this was 2019, so no covid in site. Finally, what if I spend all this money and time and not get a job? The fact that Thinkful had guaranteed that if I finished and after 6 months searching for a job and not landing one, I would receive my payment back, for me, that was the turning point between all the other bootcamps.
Well, considering all those above mentioned I have decided to start the Engineering Immersion program. I knew it was going to be immersive, but oh boy I wasn’t expecting that much. I was extremely overwhelmed in the beginning! I truly believed that course wasn’t for me. Until I started to see how much I was learning. Even though content was being passed extremely fast, I was able to absorb some. After a month in, I saw I knew so much more than when I started! Not all were flowers and happiness, of course! I had my problems, my concerns, my share of crying and freaking out, but it was the best decision I have made, especially in a world full of uncertainty with covid around. I spend all those months dedicating my time to a career! 

I came from a fine arts background with no coding experience and landed a job 10 months after starting the program. If I could do it, any one can! The Software Engineering Flex program at Thinkful was very challenging and pushed me to learn quickly. To be sure, this program requires a lot of self-motivation and determination; this is faced paced and can have a steep learning curve, especially for someone with little or no experience coming into it. However, Thinkful provided guidance, resources, and help that made it totally worth the cost.

I think the strengths of Thinkful and some of the reasons I chose this bootcamp over others were: the ability to do it part-time and on my own schedule (though it was a 30+ hr/week commitment and had an overall timeline to follow), the curriculum (focuses essentially on one fullstack approach, but it is applicable and comprehensive), having a mentor to check in with twice a week (a huge positive! My mentors not only helped me here and there when I was stuck with coursework, but also gave me lots of insights on breaking into the industry), the job guarantee (which I ended up not needing, but was a relief/assurance mentally), and the career search support after graduating. 

The only criticisms (small!) I had were a general lack of opportunities to connect in person with other Thinkful students (yes, there is a Slack channel, but no events to go to pre-pandemic), and no formal opportunities to collaborate or work in a team-setting (this may be different for full-time, on-site students).

Regardless, I highly recommend the Thinkful program to anyone considering a bootcamp. Whether I was successful or not was up to me, but Thinkful provided all the tools I needed to get there! 

As much as anyone thinking about joining an online boot camp I was skeptical and trying to figure out if it was the right thing to do. The career help and tuition reimbursement was definitely a big help in my decision-making process. I took the UX/UI Design Flex Program. The flex program gave me the opportunity to have a more flexible schedule juggling a full-time job and school. The Flex Program is the same program as the immersive program just a longer course due to it being on your time. The Mentors are great and really help tackle different concepts to help you see things from different angles to make sure you fully grasp the subject. The Success Managers are great also they are always there if you ever have any questions pertaining to the course and always making sure that your putting in the work to stay on track for graduation. I only had one con with the program and I can only say this for my particular course. That is when getting grading feedback for a project you will have revisions to do to pass which is great until a different grader looks at your revisions and decides to add more revisions on top of you already did. That can get very annoying especially for time purposes but last I brought this up I heard they are looking into fixing this problem. Other than that the course was great. The curriculum was very in-depth to help understand the particular subject. It has modules to read, videos to watch, and workshops to do to help solidify what you learned. Hope this review helps with your decision process of taking this course.

I enjoyed my experience as much as you can enjoy school, but it was a very difficult course. I found that even though there is a curriculum to work through, you definitely get what you put in. I put in extra work, asked lots of questions, and spent time outside of the assignments working on code. I went in with zero coding experience and gained a lot from the curriculum, feedback, mock interviews and the mentor I worked with. I appreciated that Thinkful covered data structures and algorithms, since they are common in interviews and not every bootcamp covers them. Thinkful is one of the more expensive bootcamps, but I think it was worth the money. Plus, they do have a job guarantee and work with you weekly after you graduate so that you get a job. I was in the Nights and Weekends Engineering Immersion - it's part time but I ended up spending about 30-35 hrs a week on the course. 

I come from a sales background and fell in love with software development through self-study and getting to know engineers I had met through work. I chose to study with Thinkful full-stack flex because I liked that I could work as fast as I wanted and I liked the tech they were teaching. I thought since I had self-studied, I could finish much faster than the allotted six months, but oh boy was I wrong… You really have to put in major hours (>30 hours) a week to get through the course work, but I think my desire to have a complete understanding of each topic really slowed me down and could have played a factor in my slowness. Overall I finished in 8 months. The part that saved me was my mentor. I had a great relationship with him and he was able to connect with me on a level other than just “here’s how to code this”. I was able to talk through my stupid questions and even talk through imposter syndrome insecurities. Meeting twice a week via zoom really was the highlight of my week, but, I would recommend having a shared doc that you can write down questions throughout the week so there’s no wasted time during the meeting.  Having a mentor helped me understand that even though they were already a software engineer, they still had to google certain stuff and we spent tons of time debugging together.  The course work itself was very text-heavy but was written in a way that was easy for me to comprehend. I found that if I had trouble with a particular concept, I could pull up Youtube or find articles online that could help me (which is an important skill to have). If I wasn’t satisfied with what I found, I knew that I could write it down and talk it over with my mentor in a few days.  An aspect that Thinkful fails at (while I was there) was the community. They really push that the slack channel is a great place to connect with other devs, but I found that we were often on completely different parts of the curriculum so I couldn’t either find help with a topic or wasn’t able to chat comfortably on topics they were on. Also, there was no real “hang out” chatting—it was basically only tech help. (This improved as I was nearing the end of my time as I think they improved a bit on their processes with putting people in cohorts).  Another thing I wish they had spent more time on was teaching the very basic fundamentals of web technology. I learned how to use tools, but didn’t truly deeply understand what was happening underneath the hood. I’ve had to really push myself during my interview phase to look up and read a lot of material on some of the "why" things work.  Overall, I am very happy with my decision to attend Thinkful. It taught me how to find solutions to problems I was encountering, which I’ve learned is such an important skill on the job. I’m lucky to have been able to find a job as a front end developer within 6 months of graduating with the help of their career services—my resume always shined and I was confident I was putting my best foot forward. In the end, the mentor sessions were invaluable in my success as a student and I'll continue to carry those lessons with me in my first role.