Chegg Skills

I'm really impressed with Thinkful so far. I've been enrolled in the flex web dev bootcamp for about two months and have learned a lot. The curriculum is laid out really well and my mentor Nathaniel has been a really nice person to learn from -- he clearly has a ton of experience and does a good job of explaining the concepts.

I tried a bunch of different things before Thinkful including freeCodeCamp, Viking Code School, and a bunch of courses on Udemy. The difference with Thinkful is that they do a good job of providing a polished learning experience from beginner to junior developer. Also, it's really encouraging knowing that I'll have 6 months with a career counselor after I finish the curriculum. This coupled with the consistent check-ins and mock interviews make me feel pretty confident that I'll be able to find a job after I'm done.

I would highly recommend this course for someone who has been learning on their own (or is just starting) and feels a little uneasy without a clear path to work through on the way to getting a job. There are some amazing resources out there, but this is the first thing I've done that has allowed me to be less stressed about if I'm spending time on the right things as I learn.

Highly recommended to anyone who is interested in this sort of program.

Overall, I would highly recommend this program to anyone who is looking for a big life change and enjoys the work. I love that I can do it from home and the schedule flexibility it offers. The curriculum is in depth without being too much for a total beginner to grasp. It can move quickly at times, so some prep can be helpful starting out (Codecademy, freecodecamp, etc). Reach out and utilize the resources you're paying for!

Some cons are: The curriculum can be (intentionally) vague at times. The intention is to encourage self-research, reaching out to others for help, and solving problems independently. It can be frustrating, but leads to realistic preparation and expectation for the type of work. Also, the mentor selection is random so the match may not be the best for individual needs. There is an option to request a new mentor, though, if it does not work out.

This program will help you in whatever direction you want to go. The mentors, community, and lifestyle changes are easily worth the cost.

My time with the iOS course has been not what I expected and I mean that as a good thing. I was aware that I would have a capstone project to finish at the end of the course but what I didn't know is that the project is where I would be learning the most about Swift. My mentor was a valuable asset to have to guide me and was the highlight of the course. As such, this review will be mostly about my experience with my Capstone project and my mentor while using the course as reference and materials. 

I would say the Capstone made up 75% of my Thinkful course length and the fact that there is no set limit to how long you can stay enrolled was perfect for that.  The course was basic enough that I was able to implement things I learned and recheck the sections in order to properly add or troubleshoot features pertaining to my app. Though I wish there was a feature that let you dive further into a certain subject like game development and using web services in other instances. My mentor was extremely kind and helpful as our sessions evolved from reviewing what I learned in past sections and introducing the next section(s) to guiding me to make my app better. Even with our near 12-hour timezone gap, we were still able to send emails back and forth and set time for sessions. We would spend our time troubleshooting problems I had that the course materials didn't go over and were slightly too dated to answer.

Overall I would have to say that the 1 on 1 mentor sessions were the best parts about my Thinkful course as it gave a human face and mind to the course materials you would work on throughout the week between them. I only wish I could've been able to schedule more than one session per week as I would've been able to get more done getting questions answered and being introduced to new subjects. Thinkful is exactly what I needed for someone who didn't wish to commute every day to a classroom to learn a new skill. This is the future of specialized education.

I graduated from Thinkful in August 2017. I thrived from havinig a cohort sized at 8 because it felt like a space where I could comfortably ask questions or discuss with classmates when I didn't understand concepts. I walked away from Thinkful knowing how to do a lot of "things" in javascript on both the front end and backend. It was during the career services portion of the course I realized I was closest to becoming a developer because before the program ended I still couldn't imagine it. Building Javascript 30 applications, a suggestion of one mentor, gave me a better understanding of the foundational curriculum Thinkful jumpstarted us with. I had an ally from the class that I worked through problems daily in a safe space where we grew from our mistakes implementing solutions. I also had a career coach that helped me identify my weeknesses then provided pointers to strengthen them for my next interview or project. I liked most that when I was interiewing, mentors were ALWAYS available to double look over assignments, clarify concepts, or give me a confidence boost with helpful feedback. This tremendously helped me grow and learn that my work as a developer only enhances with conductive criticism. The connections that the career coaches made with Thinkful's existing partners was so helpful. It ultimately led me to multiple offers and my ability to choose my the best fit for me. If you're thinking "I can't", you definitely can... because you'll have a whole team rooting for you and encouraging you through the gruesome and vunerable interview process. 

I am taking Thinkful's full-stack flex program now.  It's definitely intense, but I'm amazed at how much I've learned in just a few short weeks!  My brother works as a developer here in Atlanta and has been in this field for 20+ years, and I'm learning things he only learned in the past year!  A few times I actually knew about something he never even heard of, so I got to educate him a little bit!  Because I'm doing this online I really appreciate the fact that they offer free classes every week so I have the opportunity to sit down in a classroom-like setting and have some of the concepts explained in further detail.  You also get between 3 and 6 hours a week with your mentor, so there's help available should you need it.  I'm so glad I made the choice to do this and can't wait to see what comes next!

I chose Thinkful because I was sold on the fact that they update their curriculum based on what's popular in the industry. So at the time of my experience, React and Node were the two big guns, and now I feel pretty comfortable after my months of hard work and motivation. 

Thinkful's best asset is its mentorship. You get to have a 1-on-1 meeting with someone in the industry who knows his/her stuff. During my weeks of React, I got someone who is amazing at React. During the Data Structures week, I got another guy who exceled in that. I would also like to mention having a boot camp that has time spent in Data Structures and Algorithms will REALLY benefit you come interview time.

Basically, you never feel alone, despite this being an online/remote experience. I struggled learning to code because I didn't know where to start or who to meet. Thinkful put me in front of the right people and more importantly, kept me motivated, because face it: you have to do this yourself!

Oh, and I got a job pretty quickly after the course finished. They take their career services pretty seriously as well :-)

Short Version

 

I was spooked by the whole remote thing. I wasn't sure about who I'd be working with or what the quality of everything would be. If you're on the fence about this school, don't think twice. This is a great program that's been well thought out, and it's going to get you to where you need to be. I have zero regrets dropping $14k on the full-time program.

 

Long version

 

WHY THINKFUL?

 

Prior to Thinkful, I went to App Academy in NYC. I made it to three weeks and then quit. I commuted 4 hours from the burbs, and slept 3-4 hours every day. I couldn't retain knowledge, my brain tapped out.

 

After leaving, I set out to find a school that eliminated my biggest issues with App Academy — pace and commute. After much digging, I found Thinkful, and it turned out to be more or less what I was expecting (which is a wonderful thing), after Benjy and Bhaumik fielded my bajillion questions about the program.

 

CURRICULUM

 

The quality of Thinkful's curriculum was the biggest unknown to me, and I'm happy to report that it's legit. You could tell it was crafted with care and attention to detail. Sure, I'd find typos, but if you can get over that, the high quality is apparent. Only once or twice did I need to reference outside resources, but I always heavily favored Thinkful's interpretation of a topic (as opposed to some half-baked or outdated tutorial on the web). The biggest compliment I can give to Thinkful's curriculum is that it reminds me of a textbook — it felt like the foremost authority on the topic at hand.

 

Other than teaching us the skills to confidently be called Web Developers, we learned how to discuss programming topics with others, which I found to be essential in forging the sorts of relationships that would later turn into job opportunities.

 

STAFF

 

With the staff that you work with on a daily basis, you quickly learn that these folks are 100% invested in your success. They genuinely care. I'll go into who I feel were the heroes in my experience.

 

Instructors. I can't understate the importance of the instructors. They create/maintain the learning materials, present them, and are a resource themselves. All of our instructors demonstrated an airtight command of their topic, and they were always available to take questions. (Shout out to Rich, Chris, Joe, Tauhida, and Ray!)

 

Program Manager. Invaluable to me is the person who's running the show, and managing the cohort's day-to-day. Thinkful assigns this person the title of Program Manager. Our PM, Theresa, was exceptional. I can't thank her enough for creating a synergistic, organized, personalized, and human experience. On a daily basis, we submit our thoughts to her (kinda like a diary), and she shrewdly makes adjustments based on your reflections. In the end, you're left with an experience that optimizes your learning and mitigates any peripheral hurdles. She was someone you could go to for anything and everything — positives/negatives, suggestions, questions, complaints, etc. In a remote program, I feel like this was a huge deal. And she was always very quick to respond, even on weekends, or late at night. To me, things felt seamless, but I'd guess a big reason for that is the Program Manager. Thank you, Theresa!

 

Mentor. Your mentor is a big deal. My mentor and I quickly established a rapport and that meant I could reach out to him for questions all the time. This was essential in my development throughout the course, because that meant I'd have minimal logjams, and additional enrichment on top of an already solid foundation. Considering the pace of the course, this is so, so important.

 

SUPPORT

 

You have SO many support avenues at Thinkful. Firstly, throughout the day, you have the TAs. Our TAs were stellar. I'm talking about Elias, Sidharth and Joshua. They're teaching us not only the solution to problems, but how to think about solving problems, and how to think about the bigger picture. Slowly but surely, their problem solving habits become our own, and to be given that skill is important for any uncharted territory that you have to tread later on. My only complaint is that on some days, there would be a significant wait because of students in the queue, but most of the time it wasn't bad at all.

 

I already covered mentoring so I'll move on.

 

There's always email and Slack, and folks in the full-time program get back to you within a day at the very most. Often, you get responses instantly. There's also a general "front end web dev" channel where you can post questions, but it's hit-or-miss.

 

You can also ask questions during the daily workshop (where the instructor is presenting the new material). Or you can catch the instructors before or after the workshop, which I did several times. Or, sometimes instructors would stay and help you well after end-of-day (looking at you Chris Klanac). They are the most knowledgeable in their particular topic and they were pretty easy to get a hold of.

 

When you get support, everyone's got a positive attitude (which was helpful for my sometimes negative/angry attitude lol). You never feel like you're rushed or wasting someone's time. You never feel punished if you're wrong. You're given help by an intelligent, polite, tactful person that's just trying to get you on board with the day's concepts.

 

My one major gripe I have with Thinkful are their Q&A sessions. This is like having office hours throughout the day, every day, even on weekends, on several (if not all) topics being taught in the course. In theory this is great, but I encountered firsthand what happens if you aren't aggressive about getting your question answered — sometimes you get cut in line! This is frustrating after waiting for 30+ minutes. I rarely used Q&A after that. It would be a boon if they had a queue function built into the session, and even better, if you were notified when it's your turn so you don't have to sit through a question that isn't relevant to you.   CAREER SERVICES   I was fortunate to get a job days after completing the program, so I didn't get to work with Career Services a lot. But I'll say that the time I did spend with them left me encouraged and feeling positively about the job hunt. I also think it says something about the school that I was able to get a job so quickly after graduation.

 

WRAP UP

 

The program isn't easy and you reap what you sow. It's important to understand that no one at Thinkful is going to force you to learn, or force you to work hard. They do a lot to keep you accountable on a daily basis, but ultimately you gotta decide how much you get out of it. There are no tests; there's nothing to keep you in fear of failure or dismissal. But as long as you can work hard every day, you'll be fine, because Thinkful will set you up to succeed.

I completed the Full Time Web Development course at Thinkful a little over a month ago, and have just been hired as a Frontend Developer at a startup in NYC. The cirriculum and people involved are both fantastic. They very clearly care about the success of their students, and do everything possible to get you hired. 

You continue to build applications throughout the coursework, each getting more and more complex, until you have a full sized portfolio to help you get a job. The mentors along the way were excellent, helping with any and all problems I had.

Careeer Services begin after you have completed the course and last until you get a job. With daily and weekly check-ins with a career coach, you are actively working on your approach and job hunt, rather than just sitting around. 

It worked for me, and it was work for you too. 

I definitely recommend Thinkful to all!

I enrolled in the Flexible Web Development Bootcamp because I work full time and have family. What I liked about it was it's at your own pace and you aren't forced to graduate by a certain point with half-baked projects. The plan was to make a career change from sales into becoming a web developer. Studied curriculum during 2016, so my viewpoint may be different that what's currently on the program in terms of curriculum. Graduated in 6 months time while dedicating on average 20 hours a week. It took me about 5 months to get a job in the Bay Area after I graduated. DISCLOSURE: Getting a job in the Bay Area out of a bootcamp is VERY HARD! There's a ton of talented competition out here, so bootcampers often get sidelined. Not impossible but difficult. I leveraged my previous experience combined with my new web developer skills to find a job that utilized both.

I came into the program with my feet wet on HTML, CSS, and a little JavaScript. That helped a bit as the curriculum and examples can be difficult to follow at times. A couple of times I took it upon myself to sign up for a $10 Udemy course on the side for specific topics to better my understanding. Curriculum was heavily text based, which is fine but I would have liked some diagrams or videos integrated.

The best part about Thinkful is the mentor program, which is where you meet 3x a week with a personal mentor who's already a web developer to talk through challenges and explore topics. Where the curriculum lacked, the mentor program filled the gap. I loved having my mentor and felt he gave me a wider perspective on what was being taught.

I really enjoyed building capstone projects which are portfolio pieces you'll need to show when job hunting. I probably spent more time that I needed to on some of them but the work paid off. 

Career services was excellent and very supportive. They helped keep me on track with job applications and refined my resume and LinkedIn to shine in the best possible light.

The last section of the course focused on Data Structures & Algorithms. Kind of a minor focus in scope compared to the rest of the course but important to know. After finishing the course I took it upon myself to purchase a textbook on the subject and get better at it in prep for interviews.

I would recommend Thinkful to others! Very happy about my experience as a whole.

Thinkful has taken my web development to a whole new level. I studied on my own for 6-8 months and decided I needed more structure. After only 1.5 months I have learned more than the entire time I was doing it on my own. Thinkful’s mentors, program managers, and curriculum are all top notch. The projects Are great at applying what you learn and building up to more advanced concepts. I know I will have a job after completing the course, and I will owe that all to thinkful. 

-Chris

-Thinkful Student