Chegg Skills

I enrolled at Bloc in September 2019 and graduated July 2020. I don't recommend looking for a job at the height of the pandemic! At the time I was a full-time parent and going through the program. The part-time nature and flexibility of the program are why I chose this program. I also liked their mentor-style setup and easy-to-use interfaces. Because I was busy with full-time parenting I found that I wasn't able to devote as much time to studying the field beyond what the curriculum provided. They cover the basics and encourage you to research the field on your own. Now that I'm almost a year post-graduation I'm finally able to catch up with online communities, books, and blogs about the UX industry. One thing I wasn't prepared for was what to look for in companies when job-hunting. I recently had a "UX" job but it was more like a glorified graphic designer and they expected me to code more than they were willing to train me to do. So now I'm back on the job market and looking for companies with more established UX departments so that I can learn from a senior UX professional. The career coaches are really good overall though, they are super involved and gave me tons of advice for job hunting. I feel much more confident as a job-seeker after working with them. My brief stint at this fake UX job has also given me more perspective when searching. I highly recommend this program overall if you are considering your bootcamp options!

Thinkful's UX/UI Immersion Bootcamp is a great and relatively affordable entry into the UX space. You gain solid foundational knowledge in the overall design process and learn by doing exercises first. Over time, you build up to case study caliber projects. As with anything, you get out of the experience what you put in it. While you have a slew of tools at your disposal (curriculum, a Slack community, dedicated mentors, etc.), you will be the greatest factor in your succeeding and passing the program. Thinkful's team is also full of wonderful folks who are available to help you with your needs and concerns if and when any arise!

Some minor points of feedback would be including built-in tutorials and activities to acclimate folks with the software that's referenced throughout the program from early on (Figma, UserZoom, etc), as well as advocating for students to network early and often in their career pivot journey. 

My experience with Thinkful has been amazing! The resources provided for us are really designed to help us excel and are designed to give us short cuts to success. I liked the way the courses were structured and the order that they were revealed to us. The mentorship program was the secret to doing well in the course, because the material is hard. The mentors really helped me believe in myself and helped me easily understand concepts that I was unfamiliar with as someone from a non-tech background. 

When researching UX/UI Bootcamps, I decided on Thinkful because they were the only program to have a fully invested team behind you during the program and post-graduation. Since graduating the program, I have been in contact with my wonderful career mentor and feel confident that I will land a job in UX/UI within the coming months. Thinkful's program gave general need-to-know information about the topics, but also went a step deeper into what you can expect in the "real-world" of UX/UI. I appreciate this program in dipping my toes into this area of study and am excited to continue my career path all thanks to the Thankful curriculum and team!

I ended up taking this program as I was increasingly getting projects that required me to work with developers and UX/UI. I wanted to transition fully into UX/UI from a design background and I was not disappointed. Here are some quick observations I have of the program.

My overall experience was excellent. I was paired with an excellent mentor and given many resources to learn and develop my skills in ux/ui and product design. 

I would list the pros as:

-You start from the very bottom of knowledge. You can be a beginner and get the tools to learn UX/UI, Full Stack and Front-End development.

-There are resources provided to you everywhere. Including an online tutor who is available to you all day Sunday-Friday who will literally work with you and help you figure out a concept, feature or idea that you may be having trouble with in an assignment.

-Access to multiple tools like figma, github assets, xd, invision and more.

-Great, dedicated mentors who work with you as you go though the program. They help you as you go along the program.

- A great career department that helps assess your skill set and help you develop a resume and career plan that will help you in looking and applying to jobs.

-The ability to create your own assignments later on in the program

The cons are:

-It will take a while to get fully engaged If you are a little advanced or already know a little bit about design or UX/UI design. They start at the very bottom for everyone. You'll just have to wait before you get to concepts, projects and ideas that will help push you. In my opinion it's worth the wait. But. If you have any background already in design or UX already it will be slow at the very beginning.

-The program is changing as CHEGG is taking over from Bloc for the Thinkful program. This itself isn't a bad thing. But it caused a lot of small curriculum changes and requirements changes to projects and timelines that was a little disorienting. I would imagine things will be more in place in the next set of classes as the transition fully falls into place so I don't imagine this being an issue in the future.

-If you are not self directing, you may have issues completing the curriculum on time. This is entirely dependent on your learning style. There are milestones that are fully transparent and shared with you and your mentor and academic advisor will check in with you on your progress. But you are on your own most of the time and there is no clock/calendar when you log on-even though its easy to get to. If you're not self driving it'd be easy for you to lose pace quickly.  If you have issues with self directing or time-management, you may want to think about this endeavor before you sign up. Or speak to the school about possible resources or accomodations that can help you.

-This is a tiny con. But I still feel I should share it. The variety of assignments can leave a little to be desired. Many of your assignemnts are kind of cookie cutter and hiring managers will have seen your portfolio a million times. I don't count Thinkful as the sole culprit of this issue as I have heard this from hiring managers regarding most certificate programs and bootcamps. I would recommend finding your passions and applying what you learn in the program to those passions and also get involved with real life projects as soon as possible to help you bolster your portfolio and opportunities as you work through the program. Put extra effort in. Do not rest on only the curriculum you have to get a job. Be prepared to engage a little more. That is not to say that the program won't help you. I am positive it will help you develop skills and land some kind of job. I just want to also let you know that if you really want a great opportuinity, be prepared to have to do some of your own legwork as well.

Oh I also want to let those of us who are working and going to school as well. The projects aren't intense. But they do require a bit of time to complete. Especially when you are interviewing, and iterating. If you can't get at least 16-20 hours set aside in the week to work, you may want to wait till you have it. Most assignments won't take long at the beginning. But some projects will take a little bit of time to complete at the end.

I hope this helps anybody interested in participating in this course. I was satisfied with this currciulum. Hopefully you find this currciulum helpful to you as well if you take it.

I was doing the self taught route for 5-6 months consistently. At the end of the 5 months, I wanted to learn in a more structured way. Overall, I thought the program was super fast paced and challenging but you never really feel like you are alone because of the mentors, classmates, and TAs. I'd say if you are considering the program knowing without any technical background, to learn a little bit by yourself for at least a month or two otherwise you will feel overwhelmed or you can easily fall behind in the curriculum. 

The job assistance program is great. They send you jobs everyday and help with negotiation. What helped me is the email introductions to companies. 

The Thinkful Data Analytics Flex program was both challenging and rewarding. The curriculum definitely prepares you with the skills needed to be successful in the industry. I had some great mentors and my academic success coach was amazing! Without her support, I might not have preserved through the many life challenges I experienced throughout the program. My only recommendation would be to allow some more time to complete capstones and certain modules throughout the curriculum.
Overall, I believe I made the right choice by choosing this program!

Hi! I am a recent graduate of the Digital Marketing Flex Program at Thinkful. The flex program has a great curriculum that teaches you everything you need to become a digital marketer — campaign planning, KPIs, branding, content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, analytics, and SEO! 

My mentor, Jennifer Belo, was so encouraging and challenged me in ways that have grown me into a confident, critical-thinking digital marketer. I am currently in the job searching process and the careers team is so resourceful!

I would recommend Thinkful for anyone who is looking to challenge themselves and learn a marketable skill set! 

For a self-paced, full-stack software development course, I thought the timeline felt very rushed for a program geared towards people who are still working full time jobs. It took me 8 months to graduate when it was supposed to take 6 committing over 25 hours a week. Some of the curriculum felt out-dated but I believe it’s been updated since. I’ve heard that the newer curriculum has all students creating the same capstone projects. I’m glad I had choices regarding the projects I built so my resume is unique and personal to me. I felt like I learned enough skills to build some solid projects for my resume, and I felt like I had plenty of resources for help when I got stuck. 
Overall, I had a great experience with Thinkful. When I first started researching bootcamps, I had several informational interviews with different recruiters and Christopher from Thinkful blew every other school out of the water. I had two different mentors throughout my program (one got a new job and left) who were both awesome. We met twice a week to go over questions I had and receive help and feedback with my projects. My academic success coach was also incredible. She kept me motivated when I was behind schedule. 
I did have a little prior knowledge of software development going into the course which I think was very helpful. I took a course of recorded video lectures on Udemy beforehand and it’s something I would recommend. 
I’m currently searching for a job and have two solid leads 2 weeks into my job search. Thinkful offers a career coach to you for up to 6 months after graduating. I’ve loved working with my coach so far, but it is quite an extensive amount of work applying to jobs after graduating. 
At the price point of Thinkful relative to other boot camps, I am very pleased with my experience and would recommend!