Thinkful

My journey from social studies teacher to software developer has been a crazy journey, and not always an easy one. After trying a variety of different programs, such as Launch School, free code camp, code academy, etc... I realized that I in fact loved programming, however I was not going to be able to be disciplined enough to do a self paced program. 

This is where Thinkful comes in, and I am so glad I worked through the program. Not everything is perfect with any program, but Thinkful did a great job in the Full Time Web Development Bootcamp. The program was very structured, and built upon itself each week.

My favorite thing about the entire Thinkful full time web development bootcamp, was definitely the fact that we had structured instructor time, TA availability throughout the day, and a personal mentor. I met with my mentor every day after class and we would go over anything that i didn't understand or wanted to dive a little deeper into knowing how something was working. 

The thing that is awesome about the Thinkful program is how caring and hardworking the staff is in their mission to help their students become professional web develoeprs. The thing that i truly admired about the program is that we weren't only being taught current technologies, but how to continue learning, and think critically about a problem. 

Overall I would highly recomment Thinkful's full time web development bootcamp if your a student that requires a structured environment, and if you learn better by having classmates who are in the same boat as you are. 

I was highly interested in the program and ended up sending 3 emails with a question and request for response.  These were all submitted through their website. Each was spaced a few days apart in an attempt to not be annoying/demanding.  Still no response to this day.

If they are unresponsive at this point, there's no way I would entertain the idea of sending them money and trusting them.  No longer interested - I've found something else. 

Note: I was required to rate the Instructors and Curriculum to submit this review.  I defaulted to a single star due to my experience with simply trying to get some information.  I have no experience with their instructors or curriculum.

Pros:

• Easy to use platform
• Mentorship - 45mins once a week
• Offers Q/A and workshop sessions
• Price - $500 per month
• Nice and friendly staff

Cons:

• Exercises sometimes doesn't reflect on what was being taught. It's more difficult than what was explained or even asking for completely different solutions at times. I know that they want you to learn and do research yourself, but it just doesn't smoothly transition into the exercises/projects. I don't feel like it's for "beginners" as how they mentioned the course was for.
• No videos at all. Expect to learn from reading and mini projects only. And if you ask your mentor, they want you to research yourself as well.
• Although having a mentor is helpful, you need to be the one to ask specific questions and tell them what you want to review during your sessions. Basically, it's YOUR choice. However, if it's more structured, it will be a better guidance for the students. For instance, once you submit your projects, you will hear no feedback from your mentor unless you are THE ONE to bring it up. I feel that as a student, if I submit something, I should receive some comments or etc? Just like when you are in school, you receive a grade/comment. At least that's how I feel.
• Sometimes typos/errors in given problems to solve. For instance, you are given an algorithm to solve in jsbin, but if you're not able to solve it within a specific time, then look at the solution they gave you. Then after you understood it, write that code on your jsbin to solve it. However, it doesn't work (I did not change any codes at all, parts of the codes were already given when you open the file, so that it will show 'it's working' or 'it's not working'), so I had to copy and paste the same code from the solutions to the jsbin to make it work. Meaning there were already some kind of typos in the given problem to solve.
• You don't have lifetime access to the course materials unless you stayed at least 3 months in the course. What if people finish in less than 3 months, then they're forced to stay extra long and pay that extra month/s in order to receive lifetime access?

By no means, I'm trying to make you change your mind if you do decide to join Thinkful. This is all from my personal experience and personal thoughts on the course. I don't recommend it to those who are just starting out as a beginner, but if you do have experience with coding, then Thinkful is for you.

As far as the graduation rate and job placement,like many schools they promise wonderful things. Its just a matter of having the means to attend one of these schools or camps. My experience with my advisor or whatever they call themseleves was very simplistic. Simple in that once he found out i was living patcheck to paycheck i didnt matter much. Its quite understandeable but i dont think many people new to a career change are actually realizing how much 4 to 6 months without work can literally destroy a life especially if you have a family to care for. So I have 3 realistic options. 1. I can give up my low paying job and have me and my family stay in low income dangerous housing,going hungry from time to time and not knowing how bills will get paid 2. Keep my job and in my very little free time try and be self taught which will get me the experience in about 5 to 6 years. 3. I cannot get a loan for any real amount of money (if i could i wouldnt need to switch careers) so actually option 3 is off the table. Will the world be able to fill these 1.4 million programmer positions by 2020? With people like me probably not but what do i know i make minimum wage. So Thinkful and all you other schills;no thats not a typo, quit pumpin numbers about graduation rates and job placement. We all know theres TONS of jobs out there but until someone comes up with a realistic way for normal everyday people who have bills to attend these schools then youll just be another Kaplan or ITT tech

I would highly recommend this course. I took it while working a typical 9-5 job and didn't feel completely overwhelmed.  I didn't know what to expect considering my college major is in philosophy, but the video tutorials and the challenges they give you really help you understand the material without feeling like you were at a disadvantage from the start.  I never really liked online classes but the way they organized the material made it much more enjoyable. I was a little worried with having it be self-paced but I actually preferred it that way in the end, and my mentor definitely helped out with that. I unfortunately had to put it on pause because I'm back in school finishing undergrad, but I will, without a doubt, finish the course later on.

I have enjoyed the UX Design Thinkful course very much over the past month. I think the course work is very informative and relevant and gives a good overview of what goes in to UX Design. I have really enjoyed my mentor. I think that is the most valuable part of the program is having someone who knows what they are doing give advice and guidance. Of course, with programs like this you get out what you put into them. As long as you are willing to put the work in Thinkful will help you progress in a positive way.

Thinkful's customer service and professional mentorship are the program's best assets. I was always impressed by how accessible Thinkful staff are. Here's one example: I was worried that my final project wouldn't quite be up to snuff before another billing cycle. If Thinkful just wanted my money, they could have made me pay for another round, but instead, they were on my side and worked with me to make sure my final project was solid. 

The front-end unit was pretty easy thanks to resources like codecademy, but suddenly the back-end unit made me feel clueless at first. I definitely felt frustrated at first, but I think that Thinkful was doing me a favor by making me seek out answers to suppliment the provided material. Also, they made that seeking-out-of-answers pretty easy by responding to all questions on Slack channels and pointing me in the direction of articles and tutorials that made the pieces click. I realize now that I will have to know how to go out and find the answers to most of the problems I encounter as a web developer, so I am really glad that the curriculum didn't hand me all the answers off the bat.

My wife and I both joined thinkful, both of us have quit after two months. And let me say firstly, laziness was not an issue. We spent hours every day trying to do this course, we did not seek "handholding" nor did I enter this with an illusion of becoming an engineer overnight, this program is expensive and I wish I had sought better information before handing the cash over.

If you are  looking for an immersive educational experience leading to a career change, this is not the program for you. If your company is paying for it and you are looking to kill time and put on a good front for the boss this is perfect, or perhaps for some reason you want to buy an ebook that cost thousands of dollars; this is the program for you.

Expect the course material to be 100% reading and assignments based on the reading, expect the solutions to be wrong(wasting days and days and weeks and weeks), expect your personal mentor to have no  knowledge of the course material itself or your prgress throughout it, expect no help, expect arrogance and condesention when you seek help.

Not many graduate, they claim 60%(read the fine print of their report) graduate the program and if that is true I would be surprised that the graduate rate is even that high. I never wanted to write a review like this and stayed loyal as long as I could but the truth is they don't care about your success, and I would hate to see someone lose hope in learning to code and make the life changes simply because they were fooled and signed up for the wrong program. I switch to the free version of CodeSchool.com and in 10 minutes learned more then 2 months of heartache from thinkful.

Are you totally intimidated by the phrase "Full Stack Web Developer"? I was too. Thinkful's entire Slack community dispelled my fears. Anytime I had a question, Thinkful was there to point me in the right direction. Anytime I was worried about career options or needed further support, Thinkful was there. My mentors were all engaged and helpful, and when (due to scheduling conflicts) I needed to switch to a new mentor in my first few weeks of the course, the mentorship manager was immediately on it to get me the connection I needed. The career services team is up-front, kind and thorough, and I have every confidence that they will be able to place me in the right network as I move past graduation. 

I've never programmed before so I didn't know what to expect, but Thinkful has made it a smooth easy to understand. The curriculum covers a lot of core topics, and the projects they assign test your knowledge thoroughly. My mentor is great – quick to respond and good feedback. The sessions generally go over the projects – any key points that you miss will be pointed out, and solutions different from yours will be shown to give you an idea of how experienced programmers think. 

The only negative thing that I could say is that the reading material isn't always as in-depth as it should be in my opinion. Sometimes in order to do parts of some of the projects that they assign or answer some of the questions they ask, I find myself having to look at free online sources. But that isn't too big of a deal because the information is readily available (for free), and you are guided towards learning this information by the projects and questions so you won't miss out. 

Great course overall. 

I just completed Thinkful's Web Development Career Path and was very impressed with the program. I’ve been coding regularly for over a year now and I am currently seeking full-time work as a full stack developer. During the program I studied in depth, full stack JavaScript web development, created four personal projects, and received excellent mentorship. I was able to complete the program in three months without working. I recommend this program to anyone starting out in web development.