Chegg Skills

 

As a student currently enrolled in the Full Stack Flex program offered from Thinkful, I would 100% recommend enrolling in one of their courses, should you be serious and devoted about perhaps becoming a software developer. The curriculum is solid and my knowledge of computer coding has gone from being able to manipulate user interfaces very well, to now creating said user interfaces and understanding the technical side, and so much more. 

I have yet to use their job assistance, but i imagine it will far exceed my expectations, the same way everything else in the program so far has.

I took on this course with very little programming experience and left with a breadth of knowledge beyond what I could have imagined.  The program covers a ton of information and does a good job diving deeper into certain topics.  My one piece of advice to future students would be to make sure your schedule will accommodate the amount of work that this course requires.  While 25 hrs/week is what is supposed to be allotted for the course, there is such an intense amount of material to cover that the more time you have available the better.  If you are taking this course part-time be sure to recognize when to draw the line with certain projects because it is easy to get caught up in one and find yourself falling behind.  Other than that, this was the best decision I have made for my career.  I had the best mentor imaginable.  He was extremely knowledgeable and all in all a great guy to work with.  I truly enjoyed our bi-weekly meet ups and wouldn't have the skill set I have today without him.   I am very grateful to have had this experience with my mentor and the Thinkful program and look forward to continuing a career in data!

I am three months in the full time Data Science program now. Before reviewing the program, I would like to share some experience first. 1) If you have no previous programming experience, I suggest taking some free intro classes online first. There are lots of free intro classes on the Internet, and taking these intro classes will really help you at the beginning of the bootcamp. I have little bit of programming experienc before when I was in college 6 years ago with MATLAB and VBA, so I took the time to study a little bit of python, get to know the syntax, how to write python codes, and some basic plotting. I also learned how to use Jupyter Notebook and pycharm, as well as some basic statistics classes on Khan Academy before admitting to the bootcamp. This whole pre-boot camp thing took me about 3 months, and the time really paid off at the first month of bootcamp. 2) If you plan on admitting to an online boot camp, try to avoid end of November or December since it's holiday season and it might effect your schedule. 

So I started my Thinkful program around the end of November, before Thanksgiving holiday. Before I admitted to the bootcamp, I was able to speak with Thinkful staff and get better understanding of the program. Thinkful also provide workshops to give you a better idea of how the program will be like and Thinkful staffs will answer your questions at the end of the workshop. Thinkful provide you a 2-week trial class so you can test the water. The material of the trial class will carry on to the actual bootcamp. If you got admitted into the program, you will keep working on the pre-bootcamp materials, it took me about 2 weeks to finish all pre-bootcamp materials, which I think the 3 months studies before the bootcamp really help me a lot here. 

At the third month of the program, the bootcamp itself is going very well. I have two mentor sessions per week, and I can discuss the course materials or industrial news with my mentor, and the Program manager is always there to answer my questions. There are also lots of office hours and workshops available so you can join and see what other people is doing in the program. You can also attend other student's capstone presentations and get some general ideas of how your capstone project will look like at the beginning. Thinkful also have community events you can attend. I lives in Los Angeles and the community here is huge. They have bi-weekly events so you can meet with other Thinkful students. 

There is one think that I suggest Thinkful to improve is to provide more realistic and well-rounded examples in the course material so students can understand the concept much better. I believe most of the students join Thinkful or other bootcamps have the same goal, which is to land a job after the course. I found that some of the course material and its examples are too simple, and not practical, and it lead to a result that the course material is not helping me to finish my assignment. In some cases I end up spending 3 or 4 hours outside of the course material try to find an answer or solution for the Thinkful assignment. I have a full-time job in the day time, and I only have a few hours at night to study. Therefore, spending these extra hours outside of Thinkful materials slowing my pace or it may effect my schedule as well. But again, the Thinkful community at their Slack channel and the mentor are extremely helpful. 

I got my undergrad in Computer Science and thought jobs would be thrown at me. I was wrong. Though I did have a lot of programming knowledge, I didn't have much of a portfolio or know much about what people in the industry use now. I decided to take the Data Science course at Thinkful while I drove for lyft. Everything is different now. I have two great jobs, although I don't need both, I enjoy them. I am a Software Engineer / Data Analyst at a great company and also a teaching assistant at a data science certificate program at UCSD. 

So, for the course... I don't want to sugar coat it, this course is hard. I spent many many hours going through this course and had many pitfalls and struggles. That being said, I am glad I did. I was lucky to have a great mentor, Mike, who was knowledgable and encouraging to help me through the course. The data science course I TA for now is a class of 30+ students with only 1 instructor and 2 TAs, although it is a good course, I am very thankful I went with Thinkful and had the 1on1 support. Being able to go through it on my own time and having 1on1 time to ask questions was terrific. By the time I was 3/4 of the way through the course I felt confident enough to do work as a data scientist and talk about the complexities of it. I would strongly reccomend this course to anybody who wants to learn a lot and has the time for it. 

I want to stress that last part. You need to put aside lots of time for this course. That being said, if you do have the time you will come out very happy you took the course.

Also, clarrification on the starts. Overall was great, super glad I took the course. Instructors were better than expected, really happy with them. Cirriculum gets 4 stars because some small exercises have you find a data set to work with (which is cool because you get to work with something that interests you) but I really think the course should offer datasets it thinks would be appropriate for the exercise. And Job Assistance gets 4 stars because I really didn't have to use it much. But hey, this course changed my life so I would definitely reccomend it. 

Fully immersive web development class. Extensive work in teams and with groups, as well as mentorship, career planning, in person meet-ups and networking. They really want you to succeed and it shows. It is a very intense and hard program, expect to work 50-60 hours a week, but when you are done you have what it takes for a job in the industry. Not to scare you away but you will have to have grit to get through it. It is absolutely worth it, but make sure you really have the time to devote to this. I worked part time as well which I would not recommend but I had no choice. Know your limits!

I have been enrolled in the Full Stack Flex course for a couple of months and have found the curriculum extemely stimulating. One aspect that I didn't anticpate, but is as valuable as the content, is the relationships you forge with your program manager, mentor, and peers. My program manager, Mayank, has been supportive in my growth not only as a software engineer, but also as an individual. My course mentors help me to understand difficult concepts and challenge me to inspect a problem from a variety of viewpoints -- a crucial skill to critical thinking. 

The structure of the material is intuitive because the technology supports one another. The mock interviews are great because they are ensuring i'm prepared to add new information to my knowledge base. Finally, I firmly believe the curriculum is setting up their grads to not only graduate but get employed. 

As a current Thinkful student, I must say that I truly would recommend this program to anyone interested in coding. The structure of the program is balanced for both those with no coding experience and beginner-coders. When I first began with Thinkful I had no prior coding experience but as I have continued with the program, it has prepared me with the appropriate soft skills and technical skills to handle live coding challenges and to communicate clearly with other coders. Thinkful also has a great mentoring program, an active slack community and engaging sessions during office hours. Whether a hobbyist or looking for a career change I truly recommend Thinkful as  your place to begin on your coding journey.

I looked around the coding school landscape and found that Thinkful was perfect for me. I took on the Full Time Engineering Immersion 5 month program. I had an incredible senior developer mentor who genuinely cared about my career and progress. I found the teachers to be highly skilled in their fields and patient with new learners. The curriculum was very challenging and very current. Upon graduating my new skill set was highly sought after. I am continuing to work with Thinkful as I enter the job search until I am hired. I found that the entire Thinkful organization cares about the student success.

I am a current student at Thinkful Full-stack flex program, and I can honestly say that I've never enjoyed learning as much as I have with this program... granted, I wasn't the most eager student growing up. I fell into web development just like most stories you'll hear, it just sort of happened and the timing couldn't have been better. So to give you a quick but hopefully helpful summary, keep on reading. If you enjoy skipping to the end of the book... I HIGHLY RECOMMEND ATTENDING THINKFUL CODING BOOTCAMP, it's an excellent, well-thought-out program and (here's the catch) as long as YOU put in the work, you can get so much out of this course.  

****side note: if you want to follow along in my journey, subscribe to my youtube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2Rgy6MBNl2M2fLgNpa2ohw?​ ******

And now for the full review, based on my personal experience: 

starting point: a few months of self-taught code. (HTML, CSS, some JavaScript) (FreeCodeCamp, CodeCademy, Youtube)
end goal: to become a front-end developer to work closely with designers to turn their skills into functionality; and to be knowledgeable in full-stack, so to build better work relationships and conversations with all departments, especially those affected by a project (directly or indirectly)

Pros: 
1. Q&A, Q&A, Q&A, Q&A, Q&A!!!!  there are ongoing info sessions touching all topics of all levels. This means you can hop onto a live chat with an experienced coder at virtually any time. This will help you advance faster, as you don't have to "wait until the next class or your next scheduled mentor session". These sessions are key to building a community of other coders who are often at the same level as you or are willing to learn from you and/or help teach you. The experienced developers are motivated, and willing to either help you get unstuck or help guide you in the right direction, so you can figure out how to 'unstuck' yourself. The experienced developers are also very eager to help you outside of the suggested Q&A time. I recommend attending as many as you can. The live Q&A sessions are soo, extremely helpful and make Thinkful's coding bootcamp truly unique and worth it.
2. One-on-one mentors. You will get paired with a mentor, which is undeniably one of the best features a bootcamp can offer. In my opinion, this is a  valuable one-on-one time that you wouldn't get at an on-campus bootcamp, as I feel like other students would be fighting to meet with the teachers after classes. The mentor sessions allow you to gather your questions (big or small) and spend as much or as little time as you'd like on that particular question until you're sure you've understood it. Your mentors are also very friendly and are motivated and willing and eager to help you out. You can ask them anything from debugging your code to what life of a developer is like to career advice. Take advantage of your time with your mentors - they're there for you!
3. Program managers! Omg this is so incredibly helpful. They're your "big brothers", your "annoying parents that care about your success", and your "middle school principal that, despite only seeing them occasionally in the hallways, somehow knew that you weren't paying attention in class". You don't meet with them that often but it's a scheduled time APART from your time with your mentors and lessons, that is dedicated to your success and progress. Be honest with them, as they are also there to help you succeed, they genuinely want you to do well, and they will work with you!
4. The curriculum - wow I still don't know how someone had the patience and the knowledge to plan each lesson of the program, including everything from the layout to the challenges, to the big projects. It is an easy-to-follow curriciulum that guides you smoothly from one task to another. Each section is balanced between readings, challenges, quizzes, and reviews. So far, I see it as a fail-proof way to learn
5. The flow - What do I mean by this? The natural flow of the program, and the 'speed' in which you are guaranteed to move through the lessons, prepare for interviews, look for jobs, and become developers. It really is incredible. Just remember, you MUST put in the time and the effort
6. It's online. You can spend the next six months in pajamas or your birthday suit if you wish ( just make sure to dress appropriately during your live video sessions!) Also, if you have the chance, TRAVEL TRAVEL TRAVEL, take advantage of this time in your life and take the course on the beach in the Bahamas, because why not? 

Cons 
1. money, money, money - must be funny, in a rich man's world (sorry, big fan of ABBA here). So here's the thing: money is obviously the biggest deciding factor, as it is a great chunk of money that you're putting into the program, but here's the most important thing I can say - if you believe this is something that you truly want to perceive, then consider the cost as an INVESTMENT. It's an investment to yourself, an investment to your future, to your skillset, to your bank (let's be real, if you do this right, you should eventually be finding a job that will allow a growing salary with time). So again, if you're serious about attending, invest in yourself - even if it means working one more year at that crappy job and having to deal with your crappy boss ... just one. more. year. Save up and do it. (this is coming from someone who currently has - no joke - $122 in her bank account and moved back in with her parents at the age of almost 30. 
2. time - listen, guys, I'm gonna repeat myself but this is an INVESTMENT. If you are serious about this, you have to make sure to COMMIT fully to this program. If you know you have something that will be distracting in the next 6 months, then postpone but make sure you make this your priority. 
3. Sometimes you just have to find your learning groove and that may take some time. This course is not something to take lightly and studying should be your top priority. Just like the others, this isn't really a con, it's just a matter of taking the time of figuring out what it is YOU want. 

FINAL THOUGHTS: spend time getting to know your goals and level of commitment, once YOU'RE ready, sign up for Thinkful coding bootcamp, once you're signed up and ready to go just hit the floor running and enjoy every minute, every missed semi-colon of frustration, and every new online-friendship you get, because it truly is a POSITIVE life-changing experience. 

What initially drew to me to Thinkful was the various concentrations I could choose from in the Data Science course. Compared to other programs I looked at, they had the most variety. For reference my interest is in Biological Physics and they offer a Bio-statistics concentration. 

What keeps me at Thinkful is another story. At first i thought no face to face meetings or classes would be a drag but between my two weekly 45-60 minute sessions with my mentor I get to ask any questions that cross my mind. They can be about Data Science, the curriculum, or anything I ran across. My mentor is probably my favorite part of the program. They're invaluable in terms of their knowledge, work experience and their desire to teach. I honestly couldn't ask for a better mentor. She has a PhD, runs her own labs, does research, consults for firms... If I have a question my mentor knows the answer or can point me in the direction.

In addition to my mentor, my program manager checks on me weekly and between her and the Student Success team I can reach out for any other issues i may have during my course. They were even available when I felt overwhelmed by some deadlines due to constraints from my job. These people really care and are invested in my success and I appreciate the support from every direction. The minute I reach out to one of them, instantly they're all aware and everyone reaches out to me with advice. Can't ask for more.

The other benefits are the lectures other mentors, students and contributors post on your main Thinkful page. These can cover topics from mathematics, AI, Web design etc... If you're serious about becoming a programmer you need to learn some basics and have some general knowledge about different topics related to your work. For an interdisciplinary field such as this, these "office hour" lectures are very useful.

This is a great program and you will definitely be joining a community dedicated to your success and learning above all.

Things that I love about this camp:   -5 Unique Capstone Projects   What I like most about these projects are that you are able to select which data sets to analyze. You have complete freedom to take your analysis in whichever direction you'd like. Thinkful does a really good job of letting you get creative so you can stand out from others while also holding your work to a really high standard of quality. My mentor has been nothing short of fantastic and has been pushin me on all of my projects to go above and beyong what I originally intended.   -Mentor Sessions/Workshops   The Mentor sessions are great. You can ask you mentor any questions about your code, resume, careers, and really develop under their guidance. It's a great opportunity to build a relationship with someone who could be a reference for you later on in your job search.   If you ever run into issues, there are a ton of workshops hosted by the other mentors during the week where you can come with questions. It's kind of like going to office hours for a TA/Professor back in college.   I gave the curriculum a 4 solely because you do need to be very self-motivated to find answers on your own. Though you have access to tons of material, there honestly isn't a "perfect curriculum" that can address all of the skills you need to make your projects progress. The curriculum is not cookie cutter at all and does a great job providing a scaffolding for your success. The statistics course has room for improvement and I would suggest taking a supplemental stats course along with what Thinkful provides(there are literally tons on the internet that will do)   -Really supportive community and curriculum eases the learning curve(A BIT)   The curriculum is created so that first timers can succeed and does a great job simplifying concepts. I have 0 programming background prior to this camp but I really never felt my lack of programming knowledge was a hindrance but the learning curve is really steep. We also have a slack channel where all students can post/answer questions and issues. We also have different meetups as well!  

 

I have to say that I am enjoying my experience thus far with Thinkful. Not only is the course material challenging (in a good way) but it is relevant to what you expect. 

 This program doesn’t come without its hiccups but they recover from it quickly. I had a mentor, who was great, that didn’t show up to the assigned meetings. I notified my program manager and not only did they fix it within hours, they credited me any time missed. The whole team was fantastic. I got a new mentor and plugged away without missing a beat.

I am beyond extremely satisfied with my experience so far!

I encourage those to seek out Thinkful for their Data Science needs!