Chegg Skills

Thinkful was an amazing experience and followed through on their promise. As an out of work Event Planner due to the pandemic, my options were limited and job prospects were extremely bleak. The professional help I received in the classroom and after graduation on the job hunt, really propelled me to getting hired in 2021 in a highly competitive job market. Don’t struggle on your own like I did for months. Get involved with a program at Thinkful today and broaden your network within a positive and dedicated team. My heart felt thanks goes out to Thinkful for getting my new career ladder going this year, and carrying me through the hardest financial months of my life last year. Get started on your future success today, Best Regards, Thinkful Graduate 2020, Brandie : )

Before starting Thinkful’s program, I did extensive research in UX training programs. Based on what turned out to be misrepresentation in advertising, promotional materials of the school, and misrepresentations by representatives of Thinkful, I enrolled in the UX design immersion bootcamp at Thinkful. After three weeks of attendance, the product I received was inadequate and I withdrew for these reasons, in summary:

1. Expectation: a reliable curriculum with dependable syllabus.

What I received: an incomplete curriculum and unreliable syllabus.

Evidence: multiple schedule inaccuracies affecting assignment efficiency, comprehension, and deadlines. Daily, there were conflicting discrepancies between: the reading, assignments, schedule, instruction, and lecture slides. In a survey I conducted, the vast majority of students agreed that the syllabus and dashboard did not align.

2. Expectation: a comprehensive education.

What I received: misappropriation of class hours.

Evidence:

a. School days: homework assignments were completed during 5 of 7 school hours which directly contradicts Thinkful curriculum that states, “Homework, mentor sessions, and independent study are completed outside the scheduled course time.” Performing homework was scheduled during class in lieu of a meaningful curriculum. A mere 1-2 hours were spent in “lecture”- 30% of which was spent watching youtube videos.

b. With assignments: homework expectations were regularly mislabeled, misleading, and unexplained which led to great confusion. In a survey I conducted, the vast majority of students agree that the assignments did not have clear instructions nor expectations. In three weeks, only one assignment (out of thirty) received feedback so there was no gauge for comprehending material.

3. Expectation: support staff available for students.

What I received: our cohort was understaffed and undersupported.

Evidence: I was informed our cohort’s student teacher ratio would be 45:2 and it was 60:1. Due to an obvious lack of cohesion between all departments and program content, when questions were asked the answers often created more confusion because each department, person, or document would have differing and conflicting answers. As a direct result of Thinkful’s disorganization, my education was regularly obstructed because I was not provided the proper tools nor staff support as promised. Multiple Thinkful staff admitted, they were dissatisfied with the program themselves.

Never was Thinkful’s lack of staff, leadership, and knowledge more apparent than when the program director reached out to me, after I withdrew, asking for my insight and feedback. I created a survey to collect data reinforcing the extent of program deficiencies affecting the whole cohort. Interestingly, the day after my survey was released, Thinkful sent out a similar one.

Before withdrawing, I made friends with most of my cohort. Unfortunately, weeks later, their journey in UX education has continued to be impeded by these same issues. Too frequently I receive sad updates from current students overwhelmed by a system that is not set up to promote their success. For the money involved, that is unacceptable to me. If Thinkful had provided an adequate education, or had been willing to listen to feedback, I would still be a student. But they did not.

I had a great overall experience at Thinkful! I did the 6 months part-time course while I worked full time. Thinkful offers lots of support and the curriculum is curated which I think is very important! Means they have control over the information they put out and it's more relevant. The mentor sessions were helpful to clear any questions I had and also get face to face interaction with someone working in the industry. 

The price is definitely worth the course. The only "critique" I have is that they don't do job placement really. But you do get to work with a career coach to help you after you finish the course!

Overall, worth the price!

Thinkful is a great program for anyone who has a passion for Software/ Web Engineering and Development. The prep course is robust and should be used for self reflection/judgement of your own commitment. The mentor system is invaluable and the greater majority of people I’ve met in Thinkful are great teachers and mentors. If you take the program seriously and don’t do yourself the disservice of cheating or working around the course suggestions you will leave with enough skill and knowledge to make a way in the industry. Thinkful is just the first step of your career, but I would say it’s a good first step to take. 

Thinkful offers a dollar store quality product, no offensive intended to the dollar store. As A UX/UI Immersion program student at Thinkful, I have been disappointed each day for the duration of the program. To simplify the issues here is a bulleted list:

• The course curriculum is disorganized and incomplete
• At least twice a week there were inconsistencies in assignment requirements
• Promised support from staff was provided about 10% of the time
• Academic Success Managers were unhelpful and used fear tactics to constantly threaten repercussions for requests to correct program issues
• There is no professional syllabus provided, they do have a google sheet with incorrect due dates 
• There is ZERO flexibility is absence requests, even to take an hour to see a therapist each week, which many students were denied. 
• When a student alluded to thoughts of suicide on the student communication channel, the message was promptly removed, and the school had no interest in contacting the student through alternative channels until prompted by many concerned students. 

Overall you will not be supported in this program. Our class went from 68 to about 35 students. This is a very good way to go into debt with nothing to show for it. 

I would not recommend Thinkful to anyone looking to start a career in UX/UI. 

 I started the program during the peak of the pandemic looking for something new to learn after recently graduating from college. I found Thinkful and decided to try out coding in particular their Data Science Flex program. I did not have much coding experience going in but the program guided me through rudimentary coding to higher levels of coding. This program challenged me and helped changed my mindset to think in code. I would highly recommend this course to anyone, as it is informative for those who have coded before as well as, reasonable for those who have not. The support network for assistance was fantastic, whether it be help on an assignment, or information on the course itself, there was someone in the thinkful program that was there to help quickly and effectively. Not only that, but there is a large community of students, faculty, and graduates that are there to help you along your journey. 

This course was invaluable to my progress towards breaking into the world of Data Analytics. I have learned skills that I would have not learned otherwise. Many of the skills that I learned could be self taught or learned outside of a bootcamp, but I personally benefitted from having a structured environment where I did not need search for the next area of interest. I also hugely benefitted from my bi-weekly mentor check ins. He helped me guide me along the right path if I began to go along a tangent. He played a large part in shaping my views on data and how it can be used to build something beautiful. Without the guidance of a seasoned veteran in the Data Science industry, I would be in a very different place in my journey. I just concluded my course, and am still awaiting to be assigned a careers coach, so I cannot speak to the job assistance yet. However, once I can I will return to amend my review.

Having done the full stack web development route and after finishing up my portoflio, the job hunt came in the city of Detroit.  This was supposed to be one of the good locations to find work however I did not find any job after more than 8 months of searching.  I went to meetups, applied locally, and did all that I can with job boards.  

I started targeting companies that are nearby and contacting each one of them.  I couldn't find work.  Then they started to tell me that I should apply out of state.  This was out of the guarantee for their program.  I ended up giving up.  I lost a year of waiting and applying for jobs.  I only had like 2 interviews.  The other ones just say oh we have chosen other people with more experience than you.

I understand that finding a job is difficult but if you end up spending so long searching and end up with nothing then I guarantee that you will eventually quit.  Look there are so many people going into this field and it is important to distinguish yourself.  Begging for people to take you in is not a very good option.  So keep this in mind when you apply.  You can learn from this program and there are people there to help you however, just keep in mind that rejection is part of the game that you will be playing.  When you enter, read their job guarantee carefully before you pay them.  They came up with excuses after I asked them for mine.  

This program costed me money and time.  Time is all you have so use it wisely.

My overall experience with the Data Analytics Flex program was excellent. The curriculum is challenging but easy to understand if you put in the work. You meet with your mentor 2 times a week. Even if you don’t need help with your work, they will talk to you about their jobs. For example, my mentor showed me how he used SQL and Tableau in his work. The chat function really helped me through Python. I just exited the career search portion with a job and this program 100% helped me get it. Only downside: if you don’t live in one of the bigger cities listed on their site, you won’t qualify for the tuition guarantee. The career coaches want to see you get a job! They are there to answer any questions and review anything. I recommend this program!