Bloc

In May 2015, I enrolled in Bloc's Mobile Developer Career Track* so that I could learn how to make mobile games, specifically for Android. My track consisted of Android first then Rails Web Development. 

I enrolled in Bloc because of their mentorship, online availability, and they were the only bootcamp offering Android at the time. I had researched other bootcamps, but they did not meet my criteria.  

Android: 12 weeks, mentor: Michael Lustig

In hindsight, I should have taken 36 weeks for this course. 3 mentor meetings a week is nice if you're not working (I wasn't), but I did not get much out of my later meetings as I was able to cover most of my questions and challenges in 1 meeting. 

Michael is a great mentor. I liked his teaching style. He explained concepts and ideas succinctly so that I could understand. I liked that he was willing to exceed the 30 minute mark for mentor meetings if I was struggling or if he needed extra time explaining things. He regularly replied to my messages and rescheduled with me as needed. We still keep in touch.

As I mentioned above, my driving factor to take Android was so I could learn how to make mobile games. Bloc did have a project that walked you through making games for Android, but it was outdated. For my capstone project, I learned enough Unity to make a game called Color Words. It is a color matching game that is easy to learn, and challenging to master. Currently, I'm diving deeper into Unity in my spare time to improve my game development skills.

Rails: 36 weeks, mentor: Jess Rodriguez

Originally, my track consisted of a mobile/mobile component, however, through some solid advice from Stan I was able to switch from iOS to Rails.

The best part about taking the slow path is that you have time to absorb the material and you don't have to rush. 

If you like patient people, pick Jess as your Rails mentor. He enjoys teaching and seeing his students succeed. He'll encourage you and suggest outside resources to reinforce concepts and explore new ones. Additionally, if you feel 30 minutes is not enough for a mentor meeting, he usually goes over the limit. I highly recommend him. 

The Rails course is great. I liked that videos are included in almost every checkpoint because I like seeing things done before I try them. There is constant reinforcement from project to project and you'll learn relevant concepts to make you marketable.

Since enrolling and completing Bloc, many other bootcamps have adopted mentorship and have added online offerings. I can't stress enough that it is important to find the right bootcamp for you if you decide to go this route. I found Bloc in early to mid-2014, but kept doing research until early 2015 to find something comparable to what they offered. I didn't find anything to sway me from Bloc, but that's probably because I made up mind about committing to this bootcamp. 

*This Track was discontinued by Bloc. Ask me about it if you're curious.

Although there have been times where I've been completely frustrated with the curriculum and my mentors, overall I've had a fantastic experience with Bloc. They do a great job of "hand-holding" you through most of the fundamentals of each language by teaching you the basics and helping you through your first project in the foundation portion of each track, and then take the training wheels off with projects that give you specifications but don't tell you exactly how to accomplish the desired result. 

I started Bloc in November 2015 on the Full Stack Web Developer track. After completing some pre-work on Codecademy, I began learning Ruby and selected a mentor, Joseph Caudle. Joseph was very effective at explaining some of the behind-the-scenes logic with Ruby and teaching me how to problem solve more effectively by using Google, Stack Overflow, and other resources. As I was completing the first project within the foundation, he helped me troubleshoot any problems that I was stuck on and gave me hints for where to look as opposed to outright telling me what I was doing wrong. 

Once I got to the projects stage of the Backend (Ruby on Rails) track, I hit a wall. My first app took me forever to get through and I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. I was pretty close to quitting completely out of frustration, but he helped keep my spirits and motivation up, and I finally finished that first project sans training-wheels. The next two projects I did in Ruby on Rails were a breeze and by the end of that track, I felt like I was a decently capable Ruby on Rails programmer. 

Armed with some knowledge of how to problem-solve and troubleshoot, I began my front-end (javascript/html) track. I switched mentors to John Uke, and he has been very good about helping me solve problems myself instead of just giving me the answer. He has also been immensely helpful in tempering my expectations for the job market after I finish up, as well as giving me pointers on the ins and outs of freelance work. He also encouraged me to design my own portfolio using HTML/CSS/JQuery as opposed to using the templates given. This helped my creativity immensely and taught me how to create a website from scratch as opposed to modifying what has already been given to me. 

I ran into some of the same roadblocks whenever I started my first javascript and angular projects, but this time around I knew there was a light at the end of the tunnel and it would likely get easier after I completed a couple of them. I'm looking forward to doing some freelance work for a couple of months to build up my portfolio before applying for junior developer jobs with the confidence that I'll have the tools necessary to succeed as a web developer. 

Really my only gripes with Bloc are the cost (although it beats the hell out of a 4 year degree) and some minor inconsistencies in the foundation and project work. Usually, they're pretty quick to fix these, and they really haven't hindered my progress along the way. I would definitely recommend Bloc to anyone who is interested in pursuing a career in web development. 

In 2013, I decided to turn a twenty-year-old hobby into a career.  Many of you may know that there are essentially two ways to become a software engineer, web developer, UX designer ( and many other IT careers).  One, you pick a skill you want to develop and get out to the internet to find the countless free tutorials, challenges, and short lessons.  Two, you enroll in a formal training program (Bootcamp, technical school, college).  In the 20 plus years that I have been experimenting with software design and more recently web development, countless experts have encouraged me to always keep an open mind ot the how I learn best.  They also are quick to point out that few truly successful developers are completely self taught.

Whay explain any of this?

Choosing to become serious about a career change meant that I needed a guide into the industry.  Is a technical course or bootcamp a guide?  Well, it is if it is designed as such from the ground.  When I found Bloc, one of the first things I did was speak to  mentor.  Even before sending a penny, I was able to ask countless questions about the real-life of a developer and the real process of getting into the industry.

In my opinion, Bloc cirriculum exceeds all expectations from beginner to advanced developers.  Adding the regular direction and coding interactions with developers from Amazon to free-lance, and everything in between moves Bloc to the top of the pack of coding bootcamps.  I almost think it is unfair to call it a bootcamp as the knowledge you will gain is much more complete.  

Look around, you will find more and more bootcamps following the mentor-lead training of Bloc.  My mentors have been a perfect match for my learning style.  They are always available to me and never let me get stuck (well sometimes when they see that it is something very simple, they will challange me to push through and I end up learning a great deal).

My current mentor, Matt, and I have developed a great relationship.  Our calls are casual, but on task.  When I succeed in mastering a subject, Matt gives me a look at how he uses that in his daily coding work.  I really enjoy seeing lessons applied to real challenges and that motivates me to work harder to understand lesson concepts.  Matt also directs me to extra knowledge to expand on the lessons when he sees that I would like to write code that would add to any given lesson plan.  Did I mention that Matt makes himself available to me at all times!  I know that mentors have families, jobs, and other responsibilities; but, I regularly hear from other Bloc students that their mentors make themselves equally available.

Bottom-line: you are making an investment not only through money but your time.  Might as well invest in a Bootcamp that is committed to giving you every bit as much back as you give.  Seems to me that you can only fail at Bloc by deliberately sabotaging yourself.

Bloc does a fantastic job making sure you hit the ground running with the full stack developer track. You beging writing code from day one and I think that's absolutely imperative for anyone looking to make a career transition into software development. 

Both of my mentors were extremely knowledgable and always available to give me feedback and talk things through with me if/when I would get stuck. At the end of the program I really felt well equipped to enter the workforce as a web developer.

Bloc has changed the course of my life and I never had to leave my hometown. Computer Programming and Web Development have been something that I always wanted to do but never had the right direction to follow and always ended up feeling very lost and intimidated. Bloc changed that perspective completely. I chose the full stack web development track. My first mentor and I studied the Backend curriculum first which included a Ruby Foundation and then the Ruby on Rails framework to build web applications. After 6-8 weeks I really felt like a different person in front of a keyboard. Programming was no longer intimidating it was fun and it was all I thought of day in and day out. I went to sleep thinking about my code then woke up wanting to get back to the program. Bloc gave me an opportunity to have a career in something I am completely passionate about, thats more I could ever ask for. I digress, Finishing the Backend with Ruby on Rails my mentor took two weeks to help me learn ReactJS because he knew I was going into the frontend after our mentorship and he really explained to me why I was doing certain things in my codebase to help me understand the framework and language correctly. I felt really happy with just the backend experience itself, I almost wanted to start to apply for Ruby positions. LOL. I couldn't do that I had 3-4 months of Frontend curriculum to learn. I was completely blown away with my frontend mentor he was so educated and had taught physics and almost every subject I had ever heard of, he wasn't only an amazing programmer he was as good or better as a teacher. My frontend mentor made me think of web applications and coding languages in a completely different way, I was challenged and tested at every turn and that made all the difference not only did he teach me JavaScript, jQuery, AngularJS, and even how to build an Alexa Skill for Amazon he taught me how to solve my own problems in my programming and how to test and how to think first then act my way out of the bug. The entire Bloc experience has changed my life for the better and they have helped with every part of getting prepared for the interviewing process and how to get employed with your new skill. I would recommend Bloc to anyone who wants to become a Web Developer. 10/10

I'm nearly finished with the Bloc UI/UX track and I absolutely love it.  The curriculum is top notch, and weekly meetings with my mentor allow me to get feedback quickly.  I've learned a ridiculous amount and feel confident putting it into practice. My mentor has so much valuable experience that I'm just 100% grateful every day that he considers mentoring other folks! I've already created a rather full portfolio and I couldn't have done it without Bloc.

The only thing I would caution is that if you aren't a good time organizer or self-starter Bloc may be hard. You have to find the time to dedicate to your work and be prepared for your meetings. If that skill is difficult for you then you should consider a traditional classroom. For me I wanted something virtual and remote, so Bloc was perfect.

I couldn't recommend Bloc any more highly!

I'm currently 2 months into the Full-Stack Web Development Track.  I have found Bloc to be the perfect fit for my learning style.  I started learning web development on my own about a year and a half ago and have struggled grasping concepts with no one to really explain the why some piece of code should work like it does.  Bloc has helped with that and more.  One of the biggest selling points for me was the Mentor that I was assigned to.  He has helped me so much over the last 2 months, not by giving answers but guiding me to the answer so that it sticks in my mind better.  

The curriculum so far has been great.  They explain a concept and walk you through it then turn around for an assignment and have you work the same type of concept on a diffrent part of your app.  I know for a fact that I am farther along the journey to becoming hirable than I would of been without Bloc.  I have a strong understanding of a Rails application and create most features that I like to see in apps.  The projects focus on more specific topics than do the foundation app.  

I honestly can not speak about the job assistance as I have not get to that until later in the course, but I will update this review upon graduation from Bloc.  Overall it has been a greate experience so far.

I'm a copywriter who works closely with designers, and for a long time, I've wanted to learn UX & design skills myself. So far, Bloc has done a fantastic job of equipping me with the knowledge and skills I was looking for. The course moves quickly while still honoring the complexities and nuances of the discipline — from user research, to wireframing, to prototyping, to full-fledged design and coding, we've spent time in each part of the process. I'm actually as competent as my designer coworkers now in newer tools like Sketch & InVision.

My mentor is awesome and responsive — he's an experienced UX designer & "digital nomad" with unreal design chops, and he goes above & beyond to send me extra resources and inspiration. 

I can't recommend Bloc highly enough. You obviously have to be self-motivated, but if you keep your eyes on the prize, you'll get a ton out of the course. In my opinion, there's no better education for your $$.

Like many people jumping into the bootcamp world, I entered the realm with suspicion... making any sort of investment to an institution is a big leap of faith and requires a lot of research and pre-work before you place your name on the dotted line.

With that said, all of my hesitation was soon washed away when I was greeted with Blocs student advisors and technical staff, of whom have demonstrated world class technical expertise in full stack and software engineering fundamentals. As a current student, I cannot speak any higher than I am right now when I say these people will support you and your efforts to better yourself in development. This program is intensive and requires a very large chunk of your day every day to see progression, but you WILL see progression and you WILL succeed if you put the time in. 

That is where Bloc differs from the other bootcamps I have experienced. Bloc holds you to a high standard of work ethic and supplements that drive. You must have the hunger to learn, Bloc like any other educational institution can only support your pursuits - but they do it with grace and a level of patience I have never seen in any formal classroom. 

I have recently completed the RoR full stack course and I must say that it has definitely been worth the money. More than anything, having a mentor helped me get over the hump of learning to code. Not only that, but the tips and reccomendations my mentors gave me where invaluable. 

I give job assistance 2 stars because bloc didn't really help me. Most of the connections are on the west coast and I live in Atlanta, Ga. This hasn't been too much of a problem for myself (I'm outgoing), but I just wanted to be clear what this rating was directed toward. 

I've been doing the same job for the past 5 years and the question of what's next for my career path has been popping up in my head of what's next for me? I couldn't afford to work part time or quit my job so I enrolled in the full stack developer bootcamp. Since than I had to take a break for holidays, unexpected events by Bloc team has been very helpful! Going through the curiculum can be quite challanging but simple googling or Slack chat room and some of your questions will be answered. Mentors though, I've had two. Quite amazing. The first one was quicker to respond to any quesitons than the second. I still have about half of it to go through, but would highly suggest! Go for it! Happy hacking!