Chegg Skills

Thinkfulbwas absolutely pinnacle in allowing me to Jumpstart my career. Without spending years and years getting a Bachelors degree, within 6 months Thinkful has given me incredible skills and knowledge that have set me up to start job searching for my dream career. In the Data Analytics Flex program, you get ample time to work on assignments that help you develop skills in excel, Python, sql, Tableau, and more! Even after completion, the network of career advisors work hand in hand to make sure you can get started in a new career ASAP. ALL ONLINE! 

Honestly, way better than I thought it would be. The course itself taught me alot about what it was like to be in an enterpise enviroment, and best practices with an agile style. They helped me apply to alot of jobs, although I didn't really get anywhere for about a year or so. I dont really blame them, because they gave me the tools, and resources, and even set me up with a career coach. I think covid, and my lack of discipline held me back. Anyway very grateful to go through this course. 

Before I got into Thinkful, I was doing some research on courses on how to become a data analyst.  I looked at Thinkful as one possibility and Udacity as another.  To get my feet wet, I decided to enroll in Udacity first as that was a cheaper option to see if I had the "chops" to do this as a career.  After passing two different courses, I enrolled in Thinkful as I wanted to gain some skills in Excel and Tableau.  I picked up doing SQL and Python from Udacity.  The other reason I decided to enroll in Thinkful's Data Analytics course was for the career assistance to help graduates for up to six months after they graduate to land their first job in the field.

Needless to say, because I live in a fairly rural area of the U.S, and I don't qualify for the tuition guarantee.  It is something to keep in mind if you don't live near a big city.  Nevertheless, despite that, I decided to go forward with it and do the program anyway.

I thought they did a good job with the structure of the program and set deadlines or goal dates that one should complete a certain assignment.  While the course is outlined to be six months in duration, I was able to finish it in 3.5 months from January to April.  For me, it ran smoothly and I rarely got stuck on anything.  They do a good job explaining most modules and give a decent walkthrough on how to tackle certain things.  Granted you have to take some time to think on how to proceed with certain projects and assignments, but one can employ the slack channel as well as getting coaching help if needed.

However, I felt they should have had a capstone project where a student uses SQL and Tableau to demonstrate their skills outside of the assignments in the curriculum.  Another issue I had was the beginning module of Python.  I feel that they should revise that and have student practice more coding exercises on their own outside of Qualified.IO (the assessment website that tests students' ability on coding).  I was thinking to myself while going through that first module, "Thank goodness I took Udacity and got exposed to Python!"  The latter Python modules were great, and I picked up a few things doing those.

I just started with the career portion of Thinkful, and I'm seeing that if one applies the tips and lessons that a career coach gives as well as the general career modules that Thinkful shares with students, they should be able to pick up an entry-level job within six months.  While this process streamlines the way to get a job, a student still needs to put in the work to network, apply, and keep practicing their skills that they have learned from Thinkful.

TL;DR Course is good; Career support is Wonderful; Learn basic Python before enrolling in this course.

I dabbled in digital marketing for a few years before I stumbled upon Thinkful's course. The reason I took it was because I wanted a professional certification proving I knew digital marketing AND to help me fine tune things I didn't know as a marketer. I really enjoyed the learning style, the class room environment, and working with my classmates. Thinkful provided me MORE than enough support, regardless of my experience level. I was referred to Thinkful by a friend and I don't regret it. I will definitely recommend Thinkful to other people searching for a career change/advancement. It's truly one of the best decision I've made in several years. I also started a new job about 30-45 days after class completion.

Through Thinkful Data Analytics Flex program, I was able to get a job offer, Senior Analyst at a Healthcare industry. There are so many good things about this program, which is called Job Gureentee. For some reason, if you are not hired after 6 months you graduated, then you will get refunded. This was the main reason why I chose this program over others. I thought that I have nothing to lose. 

Through this program, I learned Exel, SQL, Tableau and Python. The quality of the contents is pretty good. I wish they would spend more time on SQL but you will get plenty of materials that you can use at work. 

The most important thing that I want to share with you is that you will get a mentor and meet with him/her once every week. They are expert. The mentor who I had was the vice president at Bank of America. I learned a lot from him. 

After you graduated, you will get a career coach who will guide you to succeed to get a job. As long as you follow their plan, you will get hired. 

If you are looking for a boot camp or looking for another opportunity to move to Data driven company but don't have any background, this is the best starting point. I strongly recommend it. 

Before enrolling in Thinkful's UX/UI Immersion program, I was working as a graphic designer making $15 an hour (after graduating with a BFA).

The course was excellent at getting me ready to find a job in the field—with tons of information and resources. It helped that I had a graphic design background, but I also got as much out of the program as I put into it.

We had three different instructors with different backgrounds (freelance, agency, and in-house). They were all very helpful and shared their experience with real-world examples and anecdotes. I was also assigned a mentor in the field who helped me with different assignments, gave me advice in the field, and talked to me about his current projects.

Upon graduating, I worked with a career coach who helped me perfect my job-hunting strategy and held me accountable. I spent several hours each day applying to different jobs and that process became a full-time job in itself. In the end, the certificate by itself didn't matter as much as the knowledge I gained from the course, my experience, and my portfolio.  I found a job one month after graduating making the average level entry salary.

Notes:
• Having a design background helped tremendously throughout the course and during the job search. People with no design experience beforehand had more of a challenge.
• The graders weren't always on the same page with each other, but it seemed to get better towards the end of the program.
• I didn't use the TA's as much, but other students had mixed feelings about them.

Overall I had an excellent experience at Thinkful which culminated in accepting a job offer as a Software Engineer one month after my graduation. The curriculum and instructors I thought were really great, though I was the last cohort on that version of the curriculum, so I cannot speak to the new curriculum. Hopefully they have added in React Hooks. My one less-than-great experience was the group work, I think they are actively working on finding a better way to structure group coding. I had a couple good groups, but most of the time people would either not come to the group sessions or just mute themselves and effectively not be there. By the end of the course I was pretty much just working solo. However, despite the group experience not being ideal I still learned an absolute ton and was able to land a job, which was the goal!