Bloc

I honestly feel like Bloc has the potential to change your life.  In many ways it has changed mine and the best part is that it will continue to.  

If I wanted to find a job as a developer I'm confident I could find one - especially if I'm willing to relocate.  I am an entrepreneur and wanted to learn enough to be able to create my business ideas.  What I learned in Bloc has given me power to make my ideas become a reality.  

I chose Bloc for three reasons.  

1. The first was it was online.  I simply couldn't relocate and I needed something flexible.  
2. Even though it was online I wanted something intense, something that pushed me, something comparable to an at-location bootcamp. I was so impressed with Bloc in this aspect. The first few weeks are very guided and directed and not that difficult. Slowly it becomes more challenging until you get out of the guided work and you begin building apps on your own with the help of your mentor.  There is flexibility here so for the person who finds this in and of itself challenging gets the challenge but for others who want to do more I was able to work with my mentor and do more advanced work. I loved that customization for me.
3. The leads me to the third reason I chose Bloc. The mentors. This is the heart of Bloc and what makes it stand out. I met with my mentor three times a week!  When I originally signed up I didn't realize it would be so often. I got to work with him on my capstone project which is a business idea I wanted to create. It was amazing to work together with my mentor to create a business.  Just this was worth it for me.  

I now have skills and knowledge I didn't have before. I am better. I have more potential. I couldn't put a price tag on this. Invest in yourself. But, that's just my opinion.  

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After taking off the training wheels after codecademy I was eager to jump into more challenging courses for web development. Most of the other on-prem bootcamps ask for upwards of 12k for 10-12 weeks of dev school. Bloc was a great alternative. It cost less than 5k (it cost me like 2.7k because of a scholarship they had available at the time). 

The weekly pairing sessions and office hours are invaluable when coding by faith. Starting off with a big project that runs the gamut off rails apps was another plus. 

One of my drawbacks was that there was not a lot of emphasis on JS. One lesson was devoted to it when truthfully JS is one of the most important aspects of modern day web dev. So maybe there should be an onus to have students learn more of it by the time the second project rolls around? 

All in all, there are only so many things you can fit into 12 weeks and they all rival each other in terms of importance. It was a great launhing pad but the most important thing is in the desire of the student. 

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I just landed a job after graduating from Bloc. Feel free to read an interview about my Bloc experience here - http://blog.bloc.io/full-stack-grad-lands-job-at-adfitech/

highlights - I had been in the IT field for a while, and wanted to learn Ruby on Rails. I liked the curriculum, I really enjoyed working with my mentor Ryan, and I liked the flexibility / accountability balance. 

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Seeing as Bloc is online and essentially self-paced / self-motivated learning, it is entirely over-priced. There are a number of comparable online bootcamp programs for a fraction of the cost. In addition, the staff neglected my need to work out a payment arrangement. This company is in it purely for the profit. The redeeming factor would be the high quality mentors.

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 I really did like my bloc experience. it was pretty intense. The best part about the experience was my mentor Aaron.

 I'm based in SF and looked pretty closely at Dev Bootcamp. I ended up choosing Bloc's 18 week track and I was able to keep working (as a marketing manager at a startup) full-time at the same time. I'm going thru the job prep phase right now, and just got an offer and will be starting as a rails developer in about 10 days. 

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There are a number of coding and design bootcamps available. Bloc is offered online and provides you with weekly mentor meetings. As such, it seems similar to several online bootcamp programs. In my opinion, I wish that I had selected one that wasn't so expensive or an on-location bootcamp that guarantees job placement. The fact that this is online, means that you are self-paced and self-disciplined. For me an in-person option would have been better. To do something like this online at my own discretion, I would have preferred a more affordable program.

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I would give this program 3/5 stars. There's A LOT of reading, and they're super informative, and I learned a lot, but I wish there were more "experience" in the field. For example, work with clients or maybe have more fake clients so that students can practice real-life situations. I feel like I still have much more to learn. I had 30 minutes mentor sessions once a week, and I felt like that wasn't enough. I was really on my own most of the time, and I did A LOT of self-learning. I've been job searching for a good month and still have no offer.

I didn't connect with Career Services yet, but you are pretty much on your own looking for a job. I wish they helped me connect with employers. Read less

I finished the Bloc UIUX design program and my experience pretty good overall. The curriculum is mostly reading material and is less interactive than I anticipated, so it's important to keep this in mind. There were no live sessions to replicate in-person classes unless you attend office hours. This is nice because it's flexible, but it was hard for me since I wanted there to be "class" for more interaction/feedback/communication. The curriculum was good, though, in the sense that it covered UX, UI, and coding. This helped me gain a greater understanding of the whole product design process. The mentorship program was one of the reasons Bloc stood out to me. I really enjoyed my mentor sessions as it helped me ask questions I had and build a relationship. I knew that my mentors were very knowledgable and also genuinely cared for me and my success. 

Difficulties:
- Grading can take a while. Some of the assignments can't be completed if the previous one has not been approved (in the sense that you should not move ahead without feedback) and this obviously set back a lot of things. It was really frustrating not to be able to plan how much work will be done in a day and move forward. 
- Another frustrating thing was coding the portfolio. In the program, you must design then code your portfolio. Now, this truly taught me a lot about HTML and CSS, but as a UIUX designer it wasn't what I wanted to focus on and it took up a lot of time that I felt was unnecessary (a shared sentiment between many). So this is also something to keep in mind. 

All that being said, I do feel that I've learned a lot and have been pushed. There is definitely more learning and work to do after this, but I feel like the program gave me strong roots. Bloc has definitely helped me grow and I feel like I did make the right choice. Read less

The Bloc curriculum within Thinkful was perfect for giving me a solid foundation in UX Design. It's a program that you really need to work hard at, and function pretty independently. But if you can do that, this program will set you up for success and give you the foundation you need to begin a career in Tech as a product designer. I recommend this course as a better alternative to more pricey bootcamps, especially if you need the flexibility to do it remotely.  Read less

I started in 2016 but not sure what month I started, I looked at my first Invoice and it was in November of 2016 so I know I started around that time most likely a couple months before. My review is really late and I decided today I want to write my experience because it wasn't a good one. When I started I was very excited and enjoyed it but about a month into the track, it started going down hill. First thing first is everything they teach you , you can learn on your own.  There's so much resources out there especially on Youtube or other websites that offer a FREE curriculum and courses that cost $10 to $20. The curriculum is not anything special and like I said you can learn all of this on your own. Now when I started this program I didn't know this and that is why I was enjoying at first ,  but after finding out you can learn to code for FREE or for $20 a month , that is when I felt pretty upset with myself I didn't do enough research before this. I am currently a Full Time Web Developer in Los Angeles and I learned everything from online resources and courses that are $10 to $20 so I know for a fact what I'm saying is true.  Now as for the teacher I had, he was smart but at times rude. I can't say he was the worst teacher because he did give good advice , just when you would ask a lot of questions he would get annoyed but I understand that a bit seeing he probably had a lot of students. I would give them one star but because I feel the teachers are actually smart I'll give them the extra star. The things that really just threw it off for me is the price ,  the curriculum , and the teacher being rude occasionally. You can learn everything from the program on your own without paying thousands of dollars. I hope this review will help some people.

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Bloc is a great online platform with a strong curriculum that teaches you everything you need to know to be a UX designer. It covers three main topics - UX research/testing, visual design, and basic frontend development. The way the curriculum is designed is innovative as well. It starts with teaching you the fundamentals for each topic, then gives you a project to do where you have to repeat the steps with some guidance. Then another project where you repeat the cycle but you have more freedom to design as you want. That system has been strong as it allows you to learn the basics and then repeat to strengthen your skills.

Besides the curriculum, there's an always-active Slack channel where students, mentors, and staff alike can interact! It's a great place to support other students by taking their surveys/tests, but also learn from the mentors and staff.

Most importantly IMO, you have a mentor who you can meet with on a weekly basis for 30 mins! My mentor has been critical in getting me to the finish line. It's easy to get in your head and become discouraged with your work, but my mentor has always encouraged me to keep going and have confidence in myself. That's something a curriculum can't teach you, so having him was so key for me.

Lastly, this program has everything you need but it's really up to YOU if you use it to its maximum potential. I had a lot of trouble getting started since I was working FT and in this program. Bloc is here to support you but you definitely need to put in the work. It takes a lot of self-discipline since you're not sitting in a classroom environment. If you can accomplish that, I believe Bloc can do great things for ya!

*Even though Bloc has Job Support, I did not give any star ratings for it since I'm not at that point of the program yet.

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I had another career and really didn't enjoy what I was doing but didn't want to go back to school for another 4-8 years to switch careers. I looked into software design programs and realized this is something I really wanted to do but when I found Bloc, I was blown away at how hands-on the program was and how it truly prepared you for real-world experience. It also is continually being updated changes it's curriculum based on what's currently going on in the tech world. My mentor has supported me along the way and I'm so excited to get a job once I finish. Bloc place has changed my life!

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I have a lot of previous design experience but I wanted to learn UX design inside and out. I'm still in the early part but I feel like I made a great decision choosing Bloc. It's a great fit for me and it's been very flexible which is exactly what I needed as I juggle other responsibilities. The curriculum isn't easy but the instructors are great and they give you plenty of help when you get stuck.

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I'm enrolled in Bloc’s web development program and it has been an incredible experience for me. Even though the curriculum is designed to be self-paced, I've never felt I am on my own and adrift. For my part, I commit 25+ hours each week to my course of study. Admittedly, there is a considerable learning curve; however, after the four month mark, the concepts clicked. I am able to bridge theory to practice and am looking forward to creating my portfolio over the coming months. As each day passes, I become more comfortable and confident. Additionally, I have also consistently been supported by my mentor who I meet once a week online, by the wonderful mentors who are available at all hours of the day on Slack, and the superheroes from student success, such as Taylor. I had a life changing event at the end of November and Taylor was my rock; she worked with me to resolve the concern in such a manner that my studies could continue seamlessly. If your desire is to create a firm foundation in front-end design and a future in the field of web development, the only choice is Bloc.

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I have been at Bloc for a year and have waited to write a review but I am at my wits end. Since my first day, I had a mentor who was a former Bloc student. They gave me very little support and always cancelled our meetings. Looking back they really offerend any "mentoring" and was not qualified in my opinion to be a mentor yet. Luckily now I have a great mentor but honestly he is the only positive part of my Bloc expierence. The hours they say it takes to complete are not feasable. I work full time and it takes hours to finish projects, not to mention the revisions. Hey I totally get that things need revisions but its not realistic to say 1 project takes 4 hours! try more 10-15 hours realistically from start to finish. Now the grading....we are being timed to complete the program. Again, some of us have full time jobs and they are suppose to take 48 hours to grade. Well it actually takes 4-5 days...and you have to wait to continue to the next project depending on the material. I have also asked for someone to call me from the support team multiple times and yet nobody has.....luckily I have UX designers who are friends & they have taught me more than Bloc. Do not waste your money. I regret it in hindsight. I am sure there are better programs out there with more supportive staff.

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I'm a design student with Bloc and I'm very glad I decided to take this course.  They've taught me things that I wouldn't have thought to learn myself, like tons of design software, color psychology, step-by-step coding, logo design, and so much more. The feedback I get on my assignments and the online technical coach assistance has been a huge help for me, along with weekly mentor appointments. I'm only about halfway through and I feel like I've learned so much! Plus, there's a scholarship for women so let's get coding ladies!

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I have already wasted so much time and energy with this useless program.  For prospective students, please do not waste your money!  I can not even begin to explain how awful this program is.  The content is made up of links to free programs.  If you are lucky enough to get the "mentor" who actually cares.  You might be told, "just give it a bit longer" or "wait until you reach Blocs original content".  Long story short.  I am not the only person who was strung along.  I do wish more people would share these experiences.  Not sure what happens to negative reviews on these sites?

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I was enrolled in their Software Developer Track for 3.5 months, and I completed the entire frontend programming portion, including the projects.  My experience was the the actual course material that bloc was providing was hardly professional or thorough.  Each "checkpoint" consists of a small section of information, which covers maybe 10% of what you need to know.  Additionally, they link you to external resources that are all free (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/).  All of the actual "educational" material that bloc provides are also just links to Code School, which you can do for free on your own.  The entire 1st module uses Code School's material: https://www.codeschool.com/learn/html-css

As for my mentor, they were really cool and eager to help me, but I honestly felt like I didn't need them.

Additionally, bloc's student advisors/student success team is extremely disorganized and unhelpful.  It actually took 3 weeks for them to respond to one of my emails.

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