Chegg Skills

With no hope in academia I decided on a career change and signed up for Thinkful's Data Science Flex course. The one-on-one mentorship was stellar. I learned so much and was able to land a data scientist position within two months after finishing, even in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic! However, I think it's important to note that I have a graduate degree which definitely helped boost my resume.

I wish there was a bit more SQL in the curriculum, along with more stats; otherwise, I thought all of the material covered was fantastic; there were even job-focused modules that focused on networking, cold outreaching, resume writing, etc. You really need to put in a lot of work and effort to be successful. Even though the "Flex" version of the course is part time, it's very easy to fall behind if you are not careful. Taking this course was one of the best decisions I've made in the last decade. Thank you Thinkful!

Codi

I chose to study Data Science at Thinkful because they offered a remote, flexible program and a tuition reimbursement if I didn't land a job in 6 months after graduating. Remote study is definitely challenging, but I felt supported by Thinkful's staff throughout. I was especially impressed with my mentor, who I met with biweekly, and the other Data Scientists and Analysts who provided feedback on my projects and mock interviews. The team is great! The curriculum is good too. After completing the program, I have a working knowledge of a variety of data science solutions. Delving deeper into subject matter is definitely up to the student. My mentor was great at expounding on areas I wanted to learn more about, and of course there are plenty of resources online to supplement. If I could change any part of the curriculum, I would add more opportunities to practice SQL. Ultimately, I had a great experience at Thinkful, and I would recommend the program to anyone interested in preparing for a career in data science or analysis!

Deciding Between Bootcamps:

If you feel that you can manage your own schedule and be persistent in regards to holding yourself accountable and keeping on track then I would say Thinkful is the bootcamp for you. The cost is very reasonable when compared to other bootcamps. You'll absolutely have no problem at succeeding if you're actually determined to make a career shift. 


My Background: 

I was working as an architectural drafter/designer for roughly 7 years and I had no software engineering experience prior to Thinkful except experimenting with Codecademy and freeCodeCamp. I was disappointed with the industry I was working in and decided to change careers. To give you some perspective, I was 32 years old when starting this journey. I'm now 33 and employed as a front end developer. 


School Structure:

- The curriculum is very upfront in regards to when assignments are due, when your mentor and manager sessions are, and where you need to go to get assistance. The biggest advantage of being in a bootcamp is that it provides you structure. For most people, learning this material on your own is very difficult.

Time Management: 

- For this program they recommend a certain number of hours per week but that number was actually way under the amount of time I should have been spending. I quickly learned this as I was falling behind within a month of the course. You really need to treat this course as a full-time job if you want to finish on time and obtain the "job guarantee" (graduate within 6 months). 
- If you plan on working full-time and take this course you will not graduate on time unless you are one of the the 3% of people who power through, doing 80 hours of work per week. I learned this the hard way by having to purchase extra time to graduate.  
- If you do fall behind, you can use your "pause weeks" strategically to make up for lost time.

Curriculum: 

- This is extremely fast-paced, but they did structure it so that everything is broken down into readable and maintainable parts. You will be learning relevant tech stacks that employers are looking for, which is incredibly important.

- Some of the curriculum is sloppy however with typos and inconsistencies. They will sometimes jump to conclusions showing you how to go from A to B but failing to mention that you need to incorporate C ("C" being something that you learned two months previously in the course but they do not remind you how to implement it). 

Instructors:

- I had five different mentors (instructors). My first mentor wouldn't show up for our meetings. I then got assigned another mentor who was competent but due to no fault of his own, he was from Spain and had a very think accent and it was difficult to talk about these often complicated concepts. I then got assigned another mentor who was great but he eventually left to pursue a new job working with AI. I then got assigned another mentor who was competent but he really did not put in any effort to assist me. I then got assigned my last mentor who was very knowledgable though he often had to reschedule our meetings.

- Thinkful also has "office hours" where you can seek assistance from a mentor but you're in a session with other students as well. This is really hit or miss. I've found some mentors to be very helpful and go out of their way to help every student that attends the office hours. I've also seen some mentors who don't even show up to their own office hours. 
 
- Thinkful also has "technical coaching" which is conducted over Slack and is not very helpful roughly 80% of the time.

Job Assistance:

- My experience with Thinkful Careers was incredible. I was lucky to have an awesome coach who gave me a lot of great advice and was very willing to give me constructive feedback in regards to my job search and the various techniques I was using. 

- She was also very empathetic to us graduates who were looking for an entry level job during a pandemic! 

- I ultimately got a full-time job as a front end developer with the assistance of Thinkful Careers and I think they do an incredible job at guiding you through the job hunting process.


Overall Experience:

- The curriculum can be very difficult and frustrating at times. This is good to go through however since the experience on the job is somewhat similar in regards to having to continually learn new concepts in a software engineering position. 

- It's affordable, convenient, and transparent.  

- There are times where you will feel like you're lost, give yourself time, and know that it will click. Software engineering is not an easy career it really takes time and perseverance. 

I want to preface this by saying that I started in the February 2020 cohort and had mild programming experience before joining the Bootcamp. The biggest thanks I can give to Thinkful is the monthly stipend I was approved for, as that allowed me to dedicate time to the Bootcamp as I would a full-time job.

Before joining the Bootcamp I had learned some HTML and CSS, with the basics of JavaScript. I had been jumping between Udemy courses and other sources like TeamTreehouse and FreeCodeCamp since the summer of 2018. Albeit I did learn how to develop very simple websites, but nothing where I needed to be to be job-ready. I had been looking at bootcamps over the past few years and Thinkful always stood out. I decided to go with them as they had 2 main things I was looking for: Full Stack JavaScript AND Remote experience. Especially with all the concerns over COVID-19 now, the remote experience will be a huge benefit as well as focusing in on one programming language and focusing more on concepts.

The teaching structure of the course is definitely well-structured and you can tell they have a good team behind that. From guiding you from front-end development to back-end with some data structures & algorithms practice, the Bootcamp gives you what you need to grow into the role you're most interested in. That along with the support from your fellow classmates, instructors, and mentors, there is no way you can't go without getting the help you need. And THAT was most important in helping me be job-ready. Prior to learning newer, more in-demand technologies in this bootcamp, I realized that I lacked the confidence that I wasn't able to find just learning these concepts on my own. Having a team of instructors with years of experience helped me actually put confidence in myself that I could indeed be a software developer.

Overall I'm more than grateful to have taken the Engineering Immersion Bootcamp. I've developed important soft skills, made relationships that I'll carry on to my new career, and got the opportunity to spend hours upon hours of coding that have given me the confidence to work in the field. I only give the Job Assitance rating 4 stars as I've only done the job preparation modules while a student in the course and those alone have helped me get my name out there more. As a graduate, I'll be paired with my own Careers Coach to help me along with the job search portion of it. I couldn't recommend Thinkful enough!

I was looking for a data science program because self studying wasn't doing it for me - I lacked motivation and self discipline.  I picked Thinkful because it was cheap AND had good employment rates after graduation.  Having to meet with a mentor twice a week was enough to keep me motivated and on track.  The curriculum gives you a good foundation, but there were some areas I felt I needed to supplement material (SQL and stats in particular).  While I was in the program, they were actively changing the curriculum though, so hopefully this has been improved.  Something I especially appreciated was all the career related help they offered during the program.  This means working on your resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile in addition to multiple mock interviews.  The mock interviews were nerve wracking, but they really helped me breakdown what I did well and what needed improving, so when it came time to doing a real interview it wasn't too bad.  

After graduation, you are paired with a career coach and this was amazing.  In the data science/analytics program, you get to meet with other data grads who are also job seeking and share advice/links/stories with each other.  I definitely enjoyed connecting with other grads since it made the job hunting experience less lonely.  Thinkful really encourages you to develop your own network and connections, but they do have people behind the scenes working their own connections.  This is how I got my job offer even in the midst of the pandemic (July 2020), 4 months after graduating Thinkful.  

Overall, if you are looking for a career change/finding a job, I'd recommend Thinkful.  

I Want the world to know about My School Thinkful, for a person that had minimal experience working with Excel and Powerpoint, I took on a beast when i encountered the immersion program at Thinkful my Academic Success Manager Encouraged me from day one, (Cali Stephans) and all of the Mentors (Jay Padhya) TA's Instructors After hours Teachers (Jason Flick, Teddy Aronson, Walter Shields, Adam Spannbauer ) and lets just say the staff as a whole gave me the tools necessary to complete the course with minimal to almost no real struggle, if you really apply yourself, they will be there to assist you, to equip you with a life changing skill that will literally change your Life. Again I want to Say Thank you to the Thinkful Staff for guiding me through this Rough Rough Journey God Bless, I will make all of you Proud of my accomplishments.

The support system is stable, and the community is excellent. Regardless of which Bootcamp you picked, the curriculum would be similar. It will give you the basics and different degrees of complexities. The thing that you can't fabricate is the community. I met excellent and supporting friends in my journey that I was so proud to be a part of it. The instructors and staff are my cheerleaders and therapist. You see, I'm working full time and a single mom, and you could imagine what type of hurdles comes my way. You won't be successful if you not have a sound support system with you. Thinkful has it all.

The pros: 
I enjoyed my time at Thinkful and learned a lot. The instructors and TAs were great and really invested time in ensuring the students understanding and success. Dennis Tran was especially awesome - he's a wealth of knowledge and a FANTASTIC instructor. Genevieve with career coaching was very helpful and had me do a Crash profile which helped me land a job. 

The cons: 
The technical coaching was generally unhelpful. They were usually slow to respond and generally didn't actually answer the question in a way that made sense. The mentors were OK--some times a lot of help, but towards the end, unable to provide much support. The academic success manager was non-existent. 

Conclusion:
I'm glad I pursued data science with Thinkful and am incredibly grateful for the instructors that supported me as I learned the field. The job search post graduation was difficult. I found that most jobs were looking for years of experience and masters level+ education in a quantitative field. I have a BS in mathematics and an MBA, but found that this was just too little education for most jobs I applied for. If you don't have a data science background or adequate education, you really have to put yourself out there (cold calls, heavy follow up) to land a job. If you're willing to do something like Crash.co, you'll be able to land a job, even if you don't have an extensive background or education.