Bloc

I'm located in the South Bay, CA, and being so close to SF meant I had a lot of different options to choose from for a UX bootcamp. I did a lot of research, and eventually landed on Bloc because my manager at the time allowed me to work part time while doing this on the side. And I'm so, so glad I did.

In the time that I started and ended Bloc, General Assembly raised their bootcamp prices by $2k+. I had a friend that was doing their UX program at the exact same time as I was doing Bloc, and it was great to compare and contrast what and how we were learning.

GA is great if you like learning in others and in group settings, but frankly, I didn't want group projects and stressing about who does what, like in high school, spending money and figuring out commute. I think the guest speakers are the coolest part about GA, but... you can find so many great talks online now. 

I liked that Bloc allowed me to pursue my career part time, my small business, and this all at once- I was busy, but I could pace myself and work and learn from home. I learned all the basics, all the tools, and my mentor was amazing, so fast at answering any questions I had, and I was still in touch with him through my job seeking process and after. The facebook group was also super helpful and everyone was very kind and helpful on that- virtual student feedback was very valuable.

Bloc is sitill developing its cirriculum, so it's defiitely not perfect- but the student advisors are all really kind and open to suggestions. I'm not sure why people expect these programs to be magical and give you a job right out of it- that's quite impossible- but if you work hard, ask lots of questions, Bloc is the perfect partner. Highly reccommend. 

I was attending when the full-stack program was less than $5k.  While I was in the program, they changed the curriuculm twice and then began advertising that the true full-stack course would begin soon.  I would be allowed to switch by paying the additional money, of course.  To me, this felt like a classic "bait and switch," which I know was not the intention of these changes; however, it did show to me that the product they have is not tested or complete.  My mentor spent a lot of time explaining to me when I was frustrated, that the curriculum team had made changes.  Some parts ended up being harder or missing instructions.  I also spent time talking to other students that said they had subscribed to all these extenal services and were studying an additional 10-20 hours on top of the program, because the program itself wasn't sufficicient for their learning needs.  Sorry... I want something that is actually a complete, strong product.  Bloc was not for me.

    Even though I have completed 150% of the curriculum materials, I had to spend much of my time locating and learning additional supplemental materials in order to be able to understand the program's course materials.  I found the course materials to contain many undisclosed errors, and the directions often were vague, resulting in time wasted and frustration. 

I also had a hard time finding a mentor who was able to simply explain some of the questions I had with the curriculum, but after some trial and error I did connect with the right person and was lucky to be able to keep in touch with him.  Had I not made the effort to find the right mentor, I would have been stuck with a mentor who was unfamiliar with areas of the curriculum concepts with which I had the most questions.  My coordinator was not as helpful in facilitating this as I had hoped and it was hard to get an immediate or timely response from her via email.  This resulted in having to call her then wait and hope she would take some action quickly before next meeting started.
  All the mentors don't really have materials prepared for your meetings, they just react to whatever questions you might have....so the overwhelming portion of most meetings were spent with the mentor "thinking about" your question, rather than efficiently providing answers.  So even if you have a good mentor who might extend your time for a free half hour, you should only expect two or three issues that you might be having with the curriculum to be resolved in any half hour or full hour session. 

After I completed all the material in over a month's less time than expected, my mentor and I didn't know what to talk about or where to take the discussion to make best use of our remaining meeting time.  He said he might come up with more material for me to learn, but ended up pointing me to other online coding schools with tutorials and exercises.  I basically went back to doing my own research for materials to learn and asked him questions if I got stumped along the way, but his ability to answer really depended on his familiarity with these outside materials.

In my opinion, their job support program as advertised is purely propaganda and should be called into question.  As I was told by the career person, the best resources available for students to find a job is the Slack Student Group, as well as their 'psychology' webinar for career support. 
I attended once, and the topic instantly put me off.  Unless you're too afraid to apply for jobs, that webinar might be for you.
  Also, advertised as part of your deal is that you are supposed to be able to benefit from their free curriculum updates, but shortly after I graduated, somehow I wasn't able to see my curriculum page even when I've logged into my account.  I can see anything in my account except my Roadmap.  I sent them a message to request to fix my issues, but they still have not responded at all.

It's been an agitating and frustrating journey for me.  Worse comes to worst, the result is I will have to apply to another similar program, and do it all over again.  Hopefully at the end of this journey I can get a job as a reward.  It's the wasting of money and more importantly, my time that really bugs me.  If you don't expect to get a job in the end, just want to pay for materials to learn and don't mind the price, you might try it yourself.  I still would not recommend it though.

 

 

 

 

Like many others, I came to Bloc after having tried the many free/low-cost online coding programs (e.g. Treehouse, Code School, etc). In college I had thought about computer programming, but ended up deciding a pre-dental path. After college I found that my interests lied more heavily with programming and I started to research coding bootcamps. I ended up choosing Bloc in large part due to the flexible pacing. I knew that I would want to start on a part-time track and possibly finish at the full-time pace. I did exactly that and the transition was seamless.

 

I had a truly amazing mentor. She had previous teaching experience and it really showed. Rather than simply giving me the answers to problems that I struggled with, she gave me the tools to identify the issue, find/understand possible solutions, and implement the appropriate solution. These are skills that I use daily as a software engineer. That's right, my time with Bloc did lead me to full time employment as a software engineer. And to top it off, it was my mentor's husband (also a programmer) who referred me for this position.

 

I was very happy with my Bloc experience. The staff that I had the pleasure of working with were incredibly helpful, gave great advice and were very supportive. I had the opportunity to meet several of them at their HQ meetups last year. Prior to joining Bloc, I had several calls with one of their student outreach advisors. He helped me understand what I could expect from Bloc, what Bloc would expect from me and also gave me insights about what I could expect from other bootcamps. When I spoke with support staff from other programs, I did not feel the love like I did when working with Bloc.

 

I did feel that the entry-level curriculum was lacking a bit. By the time I hit the Angular portion of the course, I did not feel like I had a good grasp on Javascript. Some of this may have been my bad. I was so excited to start building things that I wanted to get the foundation phase done quick. From what I've heard though, Bloc has totally updated their curriculum since I completed the course. That's what is so great about this program. They take feedback from prior students and make adjustments/improvements. 

 

In the end, with Bloc I learned a ton and was able to transition to a completely different career path. I do think it is important to keep in mind that you, as the student, are responsible for keeping up with course material and putting in the time to make sure that you understand what you're doing. You will only get as much as you put in to this experience. The mentor is not there to hold your hand every second of every day. They are there to help guide you, motivate you and occasionally help you get unstuck. Do your research to determine if this style of program is right for you. It was for me and I hope many others find that to be true. 

 

 

In my experience, Bloc, the program and the employees, has been as good as I could have expected.  The course work is specifically designed to insure that students learn the skills necessary to find employment and succeed as a developer.  They are also willing to grow, and therefore, expand existing course material.  This, to me, imphasizes their willingness to improve and make sure they are providing the most up to date learning environment for their students.  My mentor guided me through the course material rather than just giving me the information.  This allowed me to retain information and allowed the experience of solving difficult issues to be more rewarding.  Perhaps most importantly for people interested in learing code, Bloc has an well organized system to help you find a job as a developer. They honestly care about your success.  I am glad I joined Bloc, and I would recommend Bloc to anyone who is willing to put in the effort to learn web development. 

In my experience, Bloc, the program and the employees, has been as good as I could have expected.  The course work is specifically designed to insure that students learn the skills necessary to find employment and succeed as a developer.  They are also willing to grow, and therefore, expand existing course material.  This, to me, imphasizes their willingness to improve and make sure they are providing the most up to date learning environment for their students.  My mentor guided me through the course material rather than just giving me the information.  This allowed me to retain information and allowed the experience of solving difficult issues to be more rewarding.  Perhaps most importantly for people interested in learing code, Bloc has an well organized system to help you find a job as a developer. They honestly care about your success.  I am glad I joined Bloc, and I would recommend Bloc to anyone who is willing to put in the effort to learn web development. 

I have used many online courses and tutorials including: Treehouse (paid), Codecademy, Code School, and Udacity.  Bloc has some unique features that stand out.

1. Mentors.  My mentor pushed me toward self-reliance.  I want to make web and software development my career.  I need to be able to communicate to employers that I can do the job.  Ben pushed me to look up answers and think critically through my challenges.  He was not there to spoon-feed me information.  When I was a police officer, I had the same kind of mentoring.  It is the kind of mentoring that actually produces competence.

2. The organization of the curriculum.  While working through the foundational material and my projects, I have never wondered, "What am I supposed to be doing next?"  Bloc's apprentice dashboard is incedibly helpful for keeping track of accomplishments and staying on pace to complete the apprenticeship.

3. Focus on building applications.  I want to build applications...I should probably build some applications.  This has been my life with Bloc: read, think, build, evaluate.  Repeat.  I don't watch someone build something and dream about building something.  I get to build things and see them work in real life on my machine and out on the web.

I am just a few checkpoints away from my Rails program graduation.  I know how to build applications, I know how to find answers to my questions, and I am not afraid to work hard to build working applications.  Bloc has made an incredible impact on me.

 

About me:

I have a bachelor's and master's degree.  I am making a career change.  I am in my late 30s.

Thought was a comlete waste of money. The instructions on how to do anything were very obscure and if you wanted to know more there were links to Wikipedia (?)

One had to download software but there were links to other sites for instructions on how to install it and then your instructor tells you it wasn't the right way, then he also had a different teamwork viewer than Bloc says is recommended and you waste your whole one-on-one session reinstalling everything. 

My first instructor was knowledgable but there were so many inconsistencies with so many things, that it super confusing. There was also a baby crying in the background the WHOLE session, to add to the frustration. My second instructor was nice but it was too late.

Bloc is so disorganised i cannot even start explaining. Don't waste your money! 

Half hour sessions with under equipped teachers were a waste of time. My teacher had a blog post from about a year before about how they're learning rails and now they're in charge of teaching me? It shows, they're not hiring good developers to teach students. No group project which seems like a no brainer since people want to work as a team.

If you're looking to build half featured applications completely alone with the assistance of someone with 6 months of experience who has to google documentation, then you're going to love Bloc!

I graduated the Bloc Full Stack Web Development apprenticeship and it was one of the most fulfilling things I decided to do.

I wanted to level up in life and gain some useful skills.  Stuck in an unsatisfactory dead-end career, I decided to formally get some training on development.  My knowledge of programming had been limited to self-taught books and online tutorials.  I "shopped around" and considered brick and mortar schools as well as other online/remote schools.  What led me to Bloc was their value.  How I considered the value was by tallying the languages and technologies the apprenticeship taught along with the total amount of hours dedicated to learning divided by the dollar amount.  That, and being coupled with an experienced mentor got me to sign up with them.

I'll admit, I was VERY hesitant learning from a remote school.  I wanted the satisfaction of someone being able to look over my shoulder and review what I was learning.  Bloc's remote mentorship proved to be an excellent substitute.  Depending on the pace, you meet one to three times a week for roughly 30 minutes each time and you share screens so your mentor can see how you're doing and answer questions.  This one-on-one meeting turned out to be very useful, as I was able to focus on my work and not be slowed down, or left behind by a class of students of varying skill levels.  I felt my mentor was able to fine-tune the curriculum to my speed and skills.

Bloc was great when I started and got better as I advanced in my program.  Throughout the course, I was able to give feedback on my mentor and the program itself.  You could see that Bloc was slowly evolving and considering the feedback to make things better.

I would recommend Bloc to anyone who thinking about a career in programming and has no clue where to start.  I think those with no or little knowledge will benefit the most this program, however, even those who just want to polish their skills or learn something new will be able to take away a lot.

Sign up here for $100 off Bloc! https://www.bloc.io/?ref_token=MjMwMzM1MQ

From a proud alumni of the Bloc Full-Stack Apprenticeship:

TL:DR Do it! :D

I started in Oct, 2014 with the slowest course (36 weeks) because I was working a full-time job and am married. I finished July, 2015, averaging about 9 hours per week, although 10-15 was recommended. I wish I'd had more time to study, but 9 hours worked pretty well.

Almost halfway through, I wrote this post on my blog sharing my experience so far and also how preparing before Bloc was a great help.

Overall, the program definitely met my expectations. I was an embedded software engineer for 5 years before Bloc but had almost no web development skills. Bloc took me from basically zero to pretty much being able to do (or at least learn!) anything I please.

The course structure of 1/3 foundation and 2/3 projects was perfect for me. You can really learn a lot in the project section, especially if you get creative and make your projects unique.

My biggest regret is not making sure I had a good mentor. I had my first mentor for the first 1/3 of the course before dumping him and getting another one. However, the second one was hardly better, so I ended up finally switching to a good one about a month before the end. They were nice people, but they didn't take a proactive role in helping me. They basically only answered questions I asked, yet I didn't have many questions because I picked up everything easily. At the time, I didn't realize the value I was missing.

So my main recommendation is to insist on getting a good mentor and ruthlessly switch until you find one that really helps. Hopefully Bloc has improved their monitoring of this, but regardless, you are the one paying and the one that knows how much a specific mentor is helping. You want a mentor that will proactively review your code/project and give helpful feedback (not just "looks good"). Someone that truly wants to spend the whole session helping you instead of getting done as fast as possible (Levi Kennedy was the excellent mentor I ended with!).

I also didn't have the greatest experience with their job prep (basically no help at all), but I think they've improved this at least some. I tried to find a junior job but never did (search is currently on hold due do other life factors :)

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me @flybayer

P.S. Sign up through my referral link for a $100 discount!