Bloc

I'm a little over a month into the Software Development Track at Bloc, and it has honestly exceeded my expectations. Coming from a non-tech background, I was nervous that I'd find myself way over my head and constantly stressed out trying to learn the fundamentals of development. The program, however, is terrific for career-changers. They start at the most basic level and walk you through everything you need to know in a comprehensive and efficient manner. It's been said before, but the mentorship is definitely the highlight of the program. Having an expert to walk you through problems when you're stuck or challenge you when you're feeling overly confident makes all the difference. Overall, I'd recommend this program to anyone looking to break into the development world, and particularly to those who are self-motivated and thrive at independent learning.

I am new to Bloc and so far my experience has been really smooth. I chose the 20 hr per week track and was unable to do that many hours do to my long hours at work. All I did was inform my mentor and he easily switched me to 12 hrs per week. 

I also had to switch mentors do to a schedule change at my work and they easily transitioned me to a different mentor that matched my schedule. 

Both of my mentors have been great. They have always been there when I needed help and they have always been very patient even though they had to explain things several times to me (because coding was completely new to me).

I understand Bloc is a little expensive but I think it will definitiely pay out in the long run. I will definitely be recommending Bloc to anyone interested in learning to code.

Right now, I'm in 3rd week and I learned HTML, CSS, & JS. Now in the next week or so, I'm going to be applying my knowledge by creating a similar website to spotify. I am excited and ready to start. Bloc has a mentor-student program where the mentor meets with you certain times per week depending on how much time you are commiting per week. I'm committing 15 hrs/week so my mentor meets with me once per week and asks me if i had any questions as to what I've learned prior or we start brainstorming over how we can accomplish the course by doing a side project. Doing a side project while learning is fun because you eventually apply the fundamentals into the side project which becomes more motivating since you are actually doing something that you want to do and is fun. 

My mentor has been very effective in answering my questions even when I didn't get it after he explained it a few times. I don't think there was a point where I left off confused. When he meets with me, he goes beyond 30 minutes and we cover everything that I wanted/expected to cover from the past week. My mentor has never missed a meeting even when I thought that it would be a waste of his time, he still insisted that we should meet and brainstorm on project ideas and figure out how to start. I would definitely recommend my mentor to other bloc students.

He is very enthusiastic and is willing to help the students understand the topics. Of course, prioritizing the bloc program is up to you, if you really want to learn web dev/software/ux/ui, bloc is the way to go. Without the support/mentorship, all the things I've learned over the past 3 weeks would have taken a little more over a month. And since I'm in the bloc program, I get resources to other software frameworks and developments. I'm very satisfied with bloc because it provides an expansive curriculum for a beginner who's new to web/software development. 

As for the job department, even though I tended to avoid the jobs part, my mentor kept pushing to do the jobs to find each job under a vertical industry and to figure out what type of job would be a good fit for me. It's still too early for me to pick a job at this point, however, I've learned a lot more of what employers are looking for when I start this early, then I know what I've to focus on. 

I'm about 25% of the way through my Bloc course and I couldn't ask for anything better. I've worked in technology for years and also done a lot of self-directed study, but one of the best things is being able to build things as you learn. Previously I'd been in a unique situation of knowing how some programming concepts work, and understanding some of the syntax, but not really knowing where to start when I set out to build a real thing. Bloc has taken care of all of that. My mentor is great and most of the other mentors in the program are available for questions as well; our conversations range from assignments to best practices to interview tips and practice. Everyone on the staff of Bloc has been immensely helpful whenever I have a question about curriculum, schedules, or requirements. The program requires a good deal of focus and self-discipline, because you're working remotely without a teacher over your shoulder, but if you're looking for a way to get into a development career without uprooting your life for a full-time, on-campus bootcamp, Bloc is the way to go. 

I enrolled in Bloc's UX/UI Design Fundamentals program. I was debating between this program and the designer track course since I was making a career switch (from Business Development for a SaaS company). However, after doing a bit of research and speaking to one of Bloc's advisors I elected to go with the design fundamentals course. I am so happy with my decision! The course has a great curriculum and you are able to develop a solid understanding of UX/UI. You start off with your first project pretty fast, and your mentor is there with you along the way. One of my favorite parts has been to be able to present your work every week to your mentor and discussing it.

You also get to develope a solid portfolio that you can present when you start your job search.

I've already landed a product management internship :) I'm so happy with my decision, Id reccommend Bloc to anyone.

I came into this with very little experience with coding.  I have worked in some form of customer service my whole life but always wanted more tangible skills.  I spent some time researching boot camps and ultimately decided on Bloc because of the mentorship part of it.  I am loving it so far!  My mentor is awesome. He both pushes me and encourages me and is always available when I need him.  The curriculum is great as well. You are given enough to point you in the right direction and then challenged to finish things on your own.  I am very happy about my decision to attend Bloc and I can't wait to see what I can build by the end of the program!

I'm currently a student at bloc in the part time web developer track and I'm loving it! I came into the program with some programming knowledge, so far (I'm about 6 weeks in) I feel as though my mentor and everyone at bloc really wants me to succeed. My goal in finishing this is to change careers and from day one they are helping you with that. I also work anywhere from 24 - 48 hours, and the 20 hour time commitment has been more than manageable. I've already learned so much and I love having a mentor I can contact if I get stuck. I'm so glad I started this journey with bloc and I can't wait to see where it takes me

I'm currently taking the Software Developer track and I must say that I am having an amazing journey so far. My mentor answers all of my questions and guides me in the right direction to whenever I'm not fully grasping a concept. I could honestly say that I have learned a ton already and can apply my knowledge to have a technical conversation with other developers/engineers. 
Its okay to seek additional help and if nothing is fully connecting, this is where your mentor comes into play. I like the fact that there are several tests, a checkpoint where a different mentor will ask you questions based on what you've learned, checkpoints that get you prepared for a job search and that its project based. 
My mentor encourages me to get involved and attend meetups to network with other developers. There's a whole slack community dedicated for Bloc students to network and seek help.
All in all, I really enjoy the program and the Bloc community. 

 

Just a little bit about myself so you can understand why I am writing the review as it is. I am married over 40, with a Full-time job and some other responsibilities. Since I got out of the Military my career prospects haven't been what I want for a good work/life balance, so I decided to start out on a new career branch. I had previously gotten an 'Occupational AA Degree with Computer Networking' from a Trade school and knew I liked Computer field, just not the hardware portion of it.

Now onto the training stuff. I, like many other people, have used the usual ‘free’ courses on the internet along with some paid courses like Treehouse, Codecademy, Codeschool, Khan, etc. They are pretty good for self-learning the basics but it seemed to me that's all you could get. I won’t denigrate anybody that can actually use these to build a career. It just wasn't for me in fact, I would give you applause.

It’s as if the bridge from Basics to Intermediate “I can build something” was missing for me and I needed to find something else.

After close to 2 years I had to ask myself;

• Do you want to keep sitting on that chair looking up information, doing tutorials that seem easy and doesnt really let you do anything significant?
• Or do you want to get off your duff, take the leap, and start to learn something that you,
  1. Honestly like to do
  2. And can see yourself doing for a career well into retirement?

After sifting through course reviews and deciding between 3 different programs I decided to go with Bloc with the Web Developer track.

The condensed course structure, ability to do this completely online with a flexible schedule and challenging coursework that makes you actually search for an answer instead of handing it to you is awesome.

Best part is a Mentor, I feel like I hit a jackpot with mine. Always responds quickly with informative questions to my questions that makes me think differently and approach a problem from a different angle. Mentor meetings have helped let me ‘talk’ through code which has helped even more.

I am not finished with the course yet but as far as I am concerned it is worth the money and time and I recommend it highly.

I am currently half way through with Bloc's UX/UI program. My experience so far has been great. I got to know about bloc through Quora. I do not have any formal background in design but I can see myself looking at subtleties of design in all things now.

  My mentor Sharon is very helpful. At this stage I require a lot of feedback and I get a lot of answers for my all design related questions. She is prompt and has created a great rapport with me. I trust her and find her critique on my design problems very helpful.   Bloc is more of a self learning experience. Knowledge is limitless and bloc offers a  lot of resources. It basically gives more structure and more organization to what needs to be learned.    I have not used the Career Support as yet but I expect it to be helpful. Even, their operations team were very prompt and helped me with switching my program from the fastest pace to the medium pace.    My main aim is to create a portfolio. I am currently working on a project with my mentor and I expect by the end of this course I will be able to complete at least 4 projects.    I would definitely recommend bloc to all my friends who are self starters and want to learn new skills.  

 

Bloc was an awesome choice for me. I feel 100% more confident with rails than I did before.

To be clear: it's not like you can't learn yourself what Bloc is teaching you.  You can.  But, you will probably be trying to learn a bunch of other (maybe pointless) things along the way.

Bloc clearly puts a lot of effort in their curriculums and making sure you learn the skills that are not only current with the times but are focused on getting you a job.  With Bloc's curriculum, you end up *kind of* learning things on your own, but there is tons of value knowing that you are learning what you need to learn.  And if you get hung up on something, it's not long before your next mentor call who can help you get back on your feet.  By the end of the course, I felt way more confident with my programming ability.

Bottom line: If you are already somewhat of a self-learner, but want to maximize your time learning (and skip the fluff), go with Bloc. 

My experience at Bloc was amazing. I just finished my UX/UI program and I couldn't be any happier. Having a mentor with a vast experience in the field allows you to focus on the things that really matter. My mentor was super helpful and pushed me to go beyond my skills.

Bloc is project based, so you get to have several projects to show in your portfolio at the end of the program. The courses are well done and easy to follow. 

I'm getting ready to enroll in another program next year.