Chegg Skills

Enrolling in Thinkful's Flex Program was one of the best decisions I've made for my career. They have a pretty comprehensive curriculum that gives you a solid foundation in web app development using some of the hottest modern web technologies. When I first enrolled I thought there were some things left to be desired in the curriculum, especially for people that were new to coding. But it was regularly changing and improving, which I thought shows their dedication to a quality education. They don't teach you every language or framework, but through 1-on-1 mentorships and interview practice, you really get a sense of what companies are looking for in a web developer. You're also able to make great connections with other students and mentors on their Slack channels and Q & A sessions. There is a wealth of resources available to you as a student, and the community is always there to help or just chit chat about coding or the industry.

One of the things that really stood out to me as I was browsing bootcamps was Thinkful's transparency and how they openly share statistics on student outcomes. That was really what lead me to choose them over their competitors. After enrolling and graduating I really felt the honesty and integrity that they have. The mentors and coaches really want you to succeed and are more than willing to accommodate your needs as a student even if you need extra time to deal with things in your personal life or need some extra boost in your knowledge or ego (coding can really kick you in the butt sometimes). There is a great community building around Thinkful all around the US/world and that will only help you as a student and as a developer starting your new career.

After I decided I wanted to learn web development, I did a lot of research before choosing Thinkful.  I considered in person and online bootcamps, full and part time courses, 3 and 6 month programs, different technologies, etc. There are so many options and I am so glad I chose Thinkful's online Full Stack Flex bootcamp.  

Why I liked Thinkful's Full Stack Flex course:

• Learn the most current tech - JS, Node, MongoDB, React, Redux 
• Written course materials instead of videos - easy to go back and reference when working through projects
• Lots of examples and small projects to enforce the concepts
• Several options to get help - mentor, slack channels, Q&A sessions
• Go your own pace - it's online and you are not in a cohort with others so once you understand something you can move on
• Mentor to keep you on track and review your work
• Graduate with 3 projects and a portfolio to showcase them
• Career services to help you if needed after graduation

My one suggestion for someone considering the full stack flex program would be to take some HTML, CSS, JavaScript and jQuery courses before starting.  Yes, they teach it all in this course, but it was really nice going into the class and already having some prior knowledge.  It made learning the rest a little less daunting. 

I did the course full time, working 40-50 hours a week and completed it in 3 months.  I really liked that you only have to pay for the months you use, so I was refunded for the other 3 months of the 6 month program.  I graduated with a solid portfolio and was able to find a job within a month of graduating.  I love coding now!  

I am a recent Thinkful graduate (11/30/2017) and I can honestly say that enrolling in Thinkful was one of the best career decisions that I have made.  Before Thinkful I had tried a lot of other online courses, but had never been very successful. 

What differentiates Thinkful in my mind is the mentorship, Slack channel, and Q&A sessions, so you are never alone.  Learning to program is hard work and not having to learn it alone makes a huge difference. 

After graduating I had an amazing career counselor that worked with me and I was able to find a job within a couple of months as a Front End Developer.  My new career would not have been possible without the amazing people at Thinkful.  

I had a mostly wonderful experience at Thinkful. I did the Flex (AKA part-time) Full Stack Web Developer course, which requires you spend about 20-25 hours a week over the course of 6 months. I worked full time while I was in the program, and it was not easy! Be prepared to have minimal free time for many months. Also, there are post-graduation requirements to maintain the job guarantee, you have to apply to 7 jobs a week and attend 2 meet ups a month, so even after you finish, you don’t get a break until you get a job. 

That being said, if you’re up to the challenge it can be extremely rewarding! I got hired within 3 months of graduating and nearly doubled my income with my first job!

Also, the guidance staff at Thinkful is incredible!!  They were there for me every step of the way and always had my back. My mentors were such a valuable insight into the tech world, and my career coach taught me basically everything I know about job hunting!

Summary: if you’re up for a challenge, this program can be extremely rewarding, but don’t do it on a whim or if you’re not prepared to give up your Saturday nights.

THINKFUL MORE THAN EXCEEDED MY EXPECTATIONS. It provides the individualized help, support and sense of community that I’d previously thought were only available through an in-person program.

I really did my homework before settling on Thinkful’s online full-time immersive program.

The first program I looked into was ‘in-person’. I didn’t sign up because I didn’t feel the curriculum was ‘ahead of the curve’, and I felt my contact at the school was more of a salesperson than an educational advisor. Next,  I found an online program that had the curriculum I was looking for and attended for about a month. While this was a very good experience, I wasn’t being challenged enough so I looked elsewhere. ( This school was very good about pro-rating and returning the remainder of my tuition. )

I enrolled at Thinkful because the curriculum keeps just ahead of the current industry and because of the amount of support the school provides. Besides having a dedicated mentor, several QA sessions with professional developers are available every day.

A big part of what made my experience so fantastic was my program manager, Theresa. When life events, conceptual stumbling blocks or other conflicts hindered my progress, she provided me with a variety of resources to help me through.

Even after graduation, Theresa and the careers team continued to support me until I got an incredible job. And now, almost a year later, I continue to refer to my coursework.

Attending Thinkful was not only, one of the best experiences of my life, was an invaluable investment in my career.

I'm currently taking the Flexible Data Science Bootcamp and couldn't be happier with my decision.  I researched various in-person and online bootcamps for a year before finally deciding to go with Thinkful.  I was initially skeptical of bootcamps in general.  Coming from a background in academia (environmental engineering), I was afraid I would be wasting my money for an intangible result.  I was wrong!  I'm only about a month into the program but am blown away by how much practical knowledge and coding ability I have gained in such a short time.   

The online learning platform is great, as is the flexible schedule.  The program has a very personal feel.  You set a pace that works for you.  I've also been really impressed with the entire Thinkful community.  Having a personal mentor is a huge benefit and holds you accountable.  I'm very excited to continue to grow my skills over the next several months.  

Attending Thinkful was probably one of the best decisions I've made. I've waited until I was hired as a developer before reviewing so that I could give a full review of the bootcamp, both the curriculum and the post-grad support.

To give some context - Prior to Thinkful, I had dabbled in several fields - academic research, law, and recruitment. For various reasons, they were not satisfying to me. In the spring of 2017, I decided to relocate to Seattle. Alongside the move, I decided to give software engineer a chance as I had always been interested in it and thought it was the perfect time considering the move.

I was looking for several things in a bootcamp - the ability to do it online since I was relocating, the opportunity to work with others, the opportunity to be taught by somebody who worked in the field, a solid structure to the curriculum that would guide me as I learned, a portfolio to demonstrate my skills upon graduation, and a guarantee that I would get a software position of some sort (or lacking that a solid history of placing people in a position).

Thinkful immediately stood out to me because, to my surprise, they met every single one of my criteria, including, the best case, the job guarantee. I'll review each of my criteria in a short (or long) summary of how Thinkful did and didn't live up to them. (Spoiler, they did).

Mentor - This breaks down into two, engineering mentor and career mentor. Thinkful's mentor support has been phenomenal. I worked with an engineer that knew his stuff, guided me when I struggled and, most importantly, let me struggle instead of giving me answers. Our relationship was tight over the 6 months I worked with him and I truly couldn't have asked for a better one. When I graduated, I was placed with a career mentor who guided me through the tough and draining application processes, always motivating me and helping me get better. The amount of resources made available to me was staggering. I truly wouldn't have been able to find a job as quickly as I did without her help. Thinkful absolutely shines when it comes to the mentor support.

Work with Others - As I did the part time, I was solo for most of the bootcamp. Thinkful offers extracurricular lectures and a very active community of other learners for you to tap in to. So while I wasn't mandated to interact as part of the part time bootcamp, the community was there and extremely helpful.

Curriculum - This was arguably one of the most important considerations. Thinkful's curriculum is not only excellent, but constantly updated to stay relevant. The Thinkful team was constantly improving on the curriculum and keeping active students informed of additions so that we could revisit the improved information. Aside from the improvements, the material itself was relevant, clear, and easily understood. It had a number of practice problems/projects that helped to refine my understanding and had a number of guided lessons to help. In addition, they constantly sought feed back to ensure that the material was error free and easily followed. The curriculum covers an extremely modern (and desired) stack and it teaches you how to teach yourself. So while the stack my go out of style in the future, the skills and methods you gain from Thinkful goes beyond just one stack but how to think like an engineer. However, their coverage of Computer Science fundamentals was extremely brief and in my opinion did not prepare me as well as it could have for interviews. This is probably the only criticism I can make of Thinkful. But, I cut them a huge amount of slack primarily because this is NOT a computer science degree or program. It is a web development program. So they focus a ton of effort for preparing you to be a web developer. And as I touch on before, they teach you to teach yourself. So they introduced basic computer science fundamentals and provided a cursory overview and I was able to supplement that information with my own research and study. Interviews are curious to know if you have a basic grasp of this information, so having a solid understanding of it is important to get through the initial interviews.

Portfolio - I sought a portfolio so that I could have real projects to show to prospective employers. As part of the bootcamp, you're required to develop 3 projects and a portfolio site (plug- https://mattpeebl.es). These projects are rigorously reviewed to ensure originality and mastery over the subjects. They also give you a ton of things to talk about during interviews. I was extremely pleased by the requirements they set and the feedback I was given to improve.

Job Guarantee - This was the clincher for me. A job in software development within 6 months of graduating or my money back, in full. This alleviated so many of my worries and was the deciding factor for me. Thinkful takes great care to ensure you do get employed and works tirelessly to see that you do. In my experience, this wasn't an empty promise but one of their core values that they strove to meet everyday.

There's a ton more I could go into - like the constant support I received from their support team, the ability to place the course on hold when life gets in the way, the project managers who were extremely available, their huge success in creating communities across the United States, their vote of confidence in not just their students but the tech community as a whole with their most recent fund-raising series and so much more. 

Thinkful was, again, truly one of the best decisions I've made and gave me the means and knowledge to work in my chosen field, successfully. 5/5 across the board from me.

I am currently finishing up my second month of the program.  They provide you with everything you need to learn from a blank slate.  You will have a mentor, a program manager, helpful developers that host q and a sessions, and a community on slack eager to assist.  It has been a great experience so far and manageable with my full time job.  If you are very serious about getting into this field, this is a great avenue to take.  I had no prior programming experience before this.  I simply like technology and enjoy problem solving.  None of this program has felt like school.  I would encourage you to explore this field and see if it interests you.  If it does, Thinkful is a great option.  

I made the decision to apply to Thinkful's bootcamp back in September 2017. It's now January 2018 and I can confidently say it was a great decision. The amount I've learned in only a couple months is amazing. This course is very fast paced, but it's also extremely rewarding. 

I've had two different mentors, one for the Web Development Fundamentals part and one once I entered the Full Stack part of the curriculum. Both mentors had distictly different teaching styles, yet both were extremely knowledgable and helpful when I was stuck or struggling to grasp a concept.

Another great thing about the course is that they not only teach you Full Stack Web Development, but also teach you ways to get involved in the tech community around you through meetups. They are dedicated to making sure you have the skills to be a developer and they are also dedicated to teaching you ways to network. 

I have not gotten to the Job Assistance part of the program yet as I am still working through it, however, I have talked to a career advisor who has been extremely helpful in helping me decide on places to look at once I finally reach that part of the course. Also, my career advisor provided me with resources to look at for my future job search while I work through the course. The support provided by all the people I've experienced at Thinkful has been great and I look forward to continuing the course! I would highly recommend Thinkful, but keep in mind that you have to be dedicated to the course and put in the time to succeed. You will invest a lot of time and effort, but it is definitly worth it. 

I enrolled in the flexible bootcamp option, intending to do it after work each day. A week later I ended up losing my job, and thus was able to do the 6 month part time program in closer to 3 months. I should finish early February. 
Thinkful is so transparent with what they ask of you as a student, and there are always at least two people you can go to for answers about those larger, career minded questions. 
As far as the curriculum goes, it’s a very well rounded and well thought out curriculum compared to others I’ve tried. It won’t teach you everything a 4 year university will teach you, but you’ll get a solid base  and have a portfolio to show for it. How good your portfolio looks is completely dependent on how much time you put in. Towards the end of the program, there’s time to go back to previous projects and edit them or polish them a little bit as your knowledge expands, but you won’t really need to. 
They lay everything out so well that it’s super easy to follow along and have a clear vision of where you’re going.