Bloc

 

My background is in knitwear design. After a few years of learning to code as a side hobby I decided that programming is something that I really enjoy and want to delve deeper into. I spent a couple years working through Code Acadamy, Skillcrush, Udemy, and LinkedIn courses. I was comfortable writing HTML, CSS, and creating static websites. I decided to make a career change and knew that I would need a mentor moving forward.

I contacted Bloc, explained that I would like to pursue frontend development and that I had an idea that I would like to develop. I was guided towards the Design track and ensured that the Design Track offered enough frontend skills to qualify me as a frontend developer while teaching me the design skills I would need to bring my idea to life.

I registered and cleared my calendar so that I could be fully invested in my learning. I was extremely dedicated and excited and saw the program through until the end.

Mentorship:

The experience with my mentor was great. We had weekly meetings where he answered questions, shared resources, and gave me feedback on my designs. I definitely picked up a few design skills and have gained a sharper eye for design.

Bloc:

The student dashboard is misleading. There are three modules to work through 1.Design Fundamentals, 2.Design Foundations, 3.Frontend Foundations. After you complete the modules there are 7 projects that are shown as disabled. As you complete each step of a project it is highlighted and checked. The final student portfolio counting as 1 of the 7 projects. The reality is that I only completed 3 projects (one being my portfolio). This was not because I fell behind, I was ahead of time throughout the course. There just simply is not time to complete the projects that are shown in the dashboard. I never did have time to even start my Capstone project (the initial reason for signing up for Bloc).

Curriculum:

My biggest take away after completing the Design Track is the Design Process. Bloc has taught me how to breakdown the steps of the design process for any project as well as how to present the problem and solution that my design is solving. The resource links for each lesson were often outdated and linked to non-proprietary content. I managed to develop my portfolio by taking Udemy courses and using the time with my mentor to answer questions.

Develpment:

The actual frontend development portion of the Design Track was a complete waste of time. To pass this section students are required to build a Bloc Jams music app. It was extremely difficult to learn as most of the code is given to you to copy and paste and you lose context as to how and why things are working. If students were instead reqired to use one of their own designs and write the code to get their own design functioning, so much could be gained from this portion of the course. sadly, that was not the case.

Structure:

There was a lot of change taking place during my time with Bloc. The way that students communicate and post questions was changed midway through the course causing a lot of confusion and students posting questions in the wrong place. We started the design program learning Sketch and midway through the program switched to Figma.

Career Support:

The career support team is very on point. They were quick to follow up and always available to share tips and resources. The problem is that I simply do not have the job skills necessary for frontend development. Bloc has since been aquired by Thinkful. A Thinkful representative reached out to me to address my concerns. I was given a $10 Amazon gift card and offered 4 sessions with a Bloc dev mentor.

After speaking with the dev mentor and sharing my goals I have been instructed to go and learn Vue.js and get back in touch. So I am once again taking Udemy courses trying to learn the frontend foundations that I need for an entry level job.

During my sign off meeting with Bloc I was told that my portfolio is alright - not great- but alright.

My honest review of my experience with Bloc:

Meh, it's alright - Not great - just alright.

Definitely not worth the time I invested or the $9k+ pricetag. Not even close.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is very honest review. I was pretty nervous to try Bloc, Im a social person and by nature not one who likes the idea of sitting on my computer all day or taking online classes (college really gives those a bad rep, I know). I did a TON of research on bootcamps because I had a friend who had taken one and got screwed (i.e. didn't learn anything) so I called every bootcamp I heard of or found to learn about what really went on - and surprisingly, many of the in-person bootcamps were low on the rankings. I have to say I was surprised, but after dong all that research I chose Bloc and it has been amazing, They really figured out how to make online learning stimulating and enjoyable. One of the things I was told but only realized how big of a difference it makes once I started is the fact that you have Mentors grading your work within 24 hours (which is amazing because the constant feedback keeps you motivated to get better) and the Slack Channel is SUPER active - which is super encouraging because its as if you have the teacher at your service whenever you have a question. Lastly, the curriculum is structured really well and gives you a really great understanding of the PROCESS behind UX Design -- which in my opinion pays off more than learning how to make "dope" and "minimalist" designs because it means you actually know what you're doing and can EXPLAIN  why you're doing it - something that's super important once you start to have clients who have no clue what a wireframe or user stories are and just "want an app asap". So yeah, who knew. 

 

I am enrolled in the Designer track at Bloc. When I graduated from Michigan State University this past May, I knew I wanted to dive into UX Research & Design as a career, but the program at MSU was newly being developed and left me missing a lot of crucial necessities to make it in the design world.

I'm a bit over. a month in, and I could not be happier that I decided to start this program. It is challenging, but I can really tell how much I am learning. Every day I am surprising myself - between finding interest in things like Typography, and overall just gravitating towards concepts I'd never considered studying - I am very happy with the way this program goes together.

My mentor is extremely helpful, and she really has helped me in assignments, in understanding concepts, and has helped me fuel my mind to think of ideas and other UX-related things I can do outside of Bloc. 

I'm really excited about how Bloc is and will continue to help me in the future. Every resource with this program holds value, and with every assignment I do, I can tell how much I really am learning.

Hi, I am a Bloc student who is currently 4 months into the Web Dev Track with Bloc and I am at about 66% completion. Learning a new skill is never easy, and I started Bloc with absolutely ZERO coding experience. So when you're told their curriculum can and will be diffcult, you can believe them! But with those challenges come learning oppertunities and chances to deepen your understanding. The curriculum thus far has been challenging but rewarding, and I've truly enjoyed learning an entirely new skill. As long as you are willing to commit the time and effort, I believe anyone can excel with Bloc. Even if you are struggling, you can feel confident that their mentors, techincal coaches, and success team will be ready to assist you along your journey.

Some facts: Completed software developer track from Sep 2017 to Jun 2018 (10 months) at a full-time (~50hrs/week) pace. Had 3 years of programming experience as a Mechanical Engineer prior to enrolling in Bloc.   Bloc provides you with a great structure to speed up your learning and progress towards a software engineering job. They are not going to teach you anything that you can't already find online for free. However, the value from Bloc comes from having a structured curriculum that lays down boundaries of how much learning is enough for a junior developer. In addition, Bloc mentors are a good resource to help you develop best practices and give you a glimpse of what software engineering looks like. The quality of mentors varied quite a bit. Some mentors were truly committed and invested in my success. Others, not so much. But, Bloc gives you the opportunity to switch mentors whenever you need to. Most importantly for me, was their tuition reimbursement guarantee. This is great peace of mind, specially since you are paying a substantial amount in hopes of a job. The newly-added certification process is great. It exposes you to the natural pressures and anxiety that comes with interviewing in a comfortable and friendly setting where everyone involved wants you to succeed. If you work hard during the program, you shouldn't have a difficult time completing the certification. After graduating, the career success team will help you and guide you through the job search process. They do a great job at giving specific feedback for your particular situation and needs.

When I signed up for Bloc's Front-End Dev Course, there were so many good reviews here on Course Report, I thought it must be due to having an amazing curriculum. Having been through the program, I think what's actually happening is that whenever they send feedback surveys to enrolled students they look for respondents who are having a 100% positive experience, and just invite those students to post here. 

Most of the students with whom I spoke in the program were disassistfied with Bloc, many quite upset at the poor program design. 

I recently finished the Bloc curriculum and am now setting up to look for work. I cannot believe that they expect us to feel ready to apply for jobs at this point in our development. 

The curriculum appears to be largely designed to ship you through as fast as possible so that you have a cookie-cutter portfolio (your portfolio will likely look exactly like what all the other students' portfolios look like) and try to rush you into a job. Hopefully, in the job, you can get paid to keep learning...

If you're already living in a major metropolis, this might work? Maybe? 

For those of us who are supposed to move to a metropolis, or find work remotely, it's completely unrealistic to think that the skill set we have at completion would be enticing to a potential employer.

Within the curriculum, they are too ambitious with building their own curriculum and don't spend enough time explaining basic concepts. For every idea that they mention, there's dozens that they just throw at you and expect you to "mind read" to understand. For example, the .prototype. and .__proto__. aspects of JS, the GET/POST aspects of HTML, what a Router is, and how to build an app. All of those ideas are just handed to you as a template, with little explanation, and then when you don't understand what's going on later... it must have been you, the student, who just didn't get it. 

The latter mentors I dealt with were okay, but I had some big issues with a few of them. One of them skipped meetings and blamed it on me, and another just dumped meeting with me as he was quitting the job. To the administration's credit, they tried to make amends, and I do appreciate that. The latter few mentors I had were quite good, although the weekly meetings were so short, we were always rushing to try to cover my questions.

What would be better is if they stopped trying to write their all of their own curriculum from scratch, utilized some quality textbooks to get some basics down, and then used the freed time that would allow to restructure their curriculum. They should instead focus on getting students to be able to conceptually repeat basic concepts without having to read instructions or follow step-by-step tutorials. They really need to hire someone with a master's degree in curriculum/instructional design.

Since finishing, I've had to buy three textbooks and three Udemy courses, just to put together my first self-created portfolio piece. It took an extra two months of full-time (40+ hrs/week) individual study just to put together a basic web app, and I'm not sure that Bloc's curriculum was all that helpful.

The only thing that really was helpful from Bloc was to get an idea into current practices, and get an overview of the topics we're supposed to cover. 

Is that worth the $8K/9K that they're asking. 

No. No, no, no, no, no.

Here's all you really need to know: If you're doing JavaScript for the front end, there's a few topics you need to cover.

Study basic JavaScript. Just get your hands on lots of textbooks and go through them from front to back.

Then, once you've got basic JavaScript down, there's a few routes you can take. There are different aspects to the "front end" of development, and they tend to fall into acronyms for whatever you specialize in.

MERN is a popular one. It stands for MongoDB (a database system that's fairly popular, as it doesn't use the complicated SQL language), Express.js (a framework that goes between Mongo and Node), React.js (a framework that is active within your browser, helping you see things quickly), and Node.js (the JavaScript-built framework that helps you interact with your database).

There's also PERN, where the P stands for PostgreSQL. This is gaining in popularity, as MongoDB is universally hated in the development world, despite its usefulness.

If you just go through Amazon text books, Udemy courses, Lynda.com, and then go to intermittent workshops every now and then to get feedback from experienced professionals, I honestly think you'd get the same result, but without having to shell out thousands of dollars. 

Another thing worth mentioning: The gold rush for web and front-end development is kind of over. The industry is now overloaded with cheap talent. You can still do it and get paid, but you won't find as many desperate clients as there were several years ago, when all this stuff was built.

If you're looking for a computer skill set that's extremely in demand, you might consider Python and TensorFlow, for their Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning potential. Many of the web coding Bootcamps are now consolidating in the web field, due to the change in the industry, and expanding into the data/machine-learning space.

Good luck!

Bloc was one of the best decisions I've ever made. They've taught me so much that I certainly wouldn't have thought to learn if I was self taught. Of course they go very in depth on using Figma, Sketch, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and so much more. The feedback I get on my submissions is invaluable, and being able to ask questions on Slack is a game changer. Trying to Google answers is a nightmare but having one on one help for 12 hours a day is making my education relatively low stress and fun! They've helped me grow as a designer and I have nothing negative to say. There's also a scholarship for women, so sign up ladies!!!

A bit of background first; I've been a designer for quite some time now, however having mainly a focus based in print, branding & logo design, I've been wanting to shift my focus more into digital products. I initially did some research on ux/ui courses and found that Bloc would provide the most value for me (with the addition of Frontend development available through their Designer Track program). There were a few other schools I looked into as well (general assembly, ucla ux/ui [in person program]), however I felt that Bloc fit my busy schedule best. Allowing me to work on my assignments at my pace helps me better balance my 9-5 job and home life and still get my assignments completed. The one thing that I do not like about Bloc is that they do not offer more flexible time limits on their programs. While it IS self paced, at the entry price, you have 8 months to finish the Designer Track. So in terms of value, if you are full time employed, be sure you can make enough time to complete the course in that time limit. You can "purchase" additional time, however this can get expensive so make sure you thoroughly check the sylabus and ensure that you can complete the course in time.

The course itself is amazing. I have a lot of experience in design, however I find each checkpoint to offer new knowledge or challenges that help me grow a a designer. So the course is great for beginners and experienced designers as well. Bloc offers a lot of "face to face" time with mentors and students as well through resources like their Slack channel, seminars and daily design reviews. Support is always there when you need it, which is great! The one piece of advice I can give new students is to make sure to plan ahead, even though this is a self paced course, it is good to set your own goals and make sure you meet them so that you do not fall behind. So far my experience has been amazing, I highly recommend Bloc if you are looking to make a career change or to pick up some new skills in the UX/UI field.

Living in Los Angeles there were quite a few options for coding boot camps in my area but most are $10,000+ for tuition and require 3-5 months of full-time dedication. Which unless you have a lot of savings to pull from is just not a financially sustainable option. On top of this, I wasn't sure I wanted to go into UX design or would prefer to learn how to become a web developer. When I contacted a student advisor with Bloc about my indecision she was very helpful in providing me with resources I could try in order to make my choice. Bloc was the best choice for me because it allows me to work a day job and learn at my own pace. In addition, I was able to receive a scholarship which significantly helped with my ability to afford the program on top of the flexible payment plans they have available. I am about 2 months into the Design track and love the module layout. It makes it is easy to see my progress. The weekly mentor meetings are helpful in clarifying concepts and asking for additional resources. The additional weekly learning sessions are very insightful and focused on specific topics. Also, the Slack community is very helpful for getting quick assistance from other students, alumni, or assigned mentors.  I am grateful an option like Bloc exists so that I could have the opportunity to make a meaningful career change. 

I started BLOC on May 14, 2018, I am very pleased with the program.  I have learned so much already,  it is very challenging, but the feedback you receive from the grading team, and the assistance you get from the Slack community technical support, and other students, you never feel like you are out there on your own. It is an 8 month course, but I’m doing it on a full time basis, so I want to try and finish sooner, so I can look for work in this new field.  If I have one complaint, it would simply be that I wish that assignment instructions had a bit more detail about what is needed. There were times that it was unclear what was needed, and I wasted time doing something that wasn’t necessary to complete the assignment.  Make it plain.  

I'd been working as a frontend developer for a couple years and was hoping to learn some new UX/UI deisgn skills by taking the Bloc course. Bloc made it seem like this was a good option for people, like myself, who had some industry experience already. 

Enrolling and completing this course was a mistake. I feel that I have wasted time and money in doing so. I was hoping I would gain valuable knowledge by enrolling but I did not. As someone with prior experience, I have learned more about UX/UI design as a front-end developer in the industry. Not with Bloc. 

My mentor was extremly kind though he was constantly running late and then our meetings would be rushed. He would also forget about feedback he would give me in previous weeks and contradict his own design critiques. When I tried to switch mentors, there were none other available. 

 

 

I am in the process of transitioning out of the military into software development. I was in a rut with self-learning. I really needed a structured program that would put me on a timeline and trajectory for success. Bloc has a set curriculum that will help me start a career I always dreamed of in about 8 months. It was right on time and exactly what I was looking for because I needed to start a job within the year and was starting to stress out of wether I would be ready while self-learning. I am married with a three year old working full time and I have been able to stay on track. I am not losing sleep about wether I am on pace or not on my journey to start a new career in tech. I will graduate in a few more months with a portfolio that will get me a well paying job. At Bloc I have particularly liked the mentors and Slack group available. These were things I couldnt get while self-learning and have proved very valuable. My mentors have brought items to my attention about the software/web development sector that I wouldn't have learned otherwise. I would seriously reccomend Bloc to anyone looking for what is almost a gateway to a software dev career. 

Bloc is a challenging, but completable coding boot camp for those of us who cannot attend an in-person program. Bloc has used it's years of experience to craft a proven program that will turn you into an industry-ready developer. Bloc is constantly evolving according to student feedback, and they always put their students' interests first. Thanks to bloc I was able to transition into a role as a software engineer 4 months after completing the program. Not only that, but my new employer was actually impressed with the skills and portfolio I had to show thanks to Bloc. I highly recommend considering Bloc.

This course is exactly what I had expected it to be.  It is designed to get you ready for the real world.There are definitely some days that take a toll on you but the Bloc community and mentors are always there to help cheer you on and help out anyway they can. 

You definitely need to put in the time and effort but I believe this is all preparation for a great career  My graduation date isn’t until August and I have a lot of work to get done, but I’m excited for my future and thankful for the folks at Bloc for all they have taught me  I have come a long way from day 1 and I have so much more to learn :) 

 

 

I've been in the Bloc Designer Program for a little over a month now and have truly enjoyed every minute of it. The program challenges me on many levels while learning from those around me, through students, mentors and advisors. You really feel a sense of accomplish after going through each checkpoint and those checkpoints then carry you on each step to build those skills, understanding of design, prepare you for the future and provide you with opportunities beyond and give you the confidence. Love my mentor she is absolutely great and has helped me from day 1, we meet weekly. Great people here, highly recommend this program at any stage in your career.

I am currently finishing the Bloc Web Development track this week. 

 

My experience through the entire program has been extremely positive, and I will say up front that Bloc's mentorship program was the reason and I started and the reason I was able to be successful. Learning to program is extremely difficult, and sometimes seems downright impossible, but having an experienced developer to help guide you through those difficult moments is quintessential to the learning process. WIth this said, there is a mutual expectation that you will do the hard work, and ask for guidance when needed.

While I was not using this program for a career change, I can tell you that there are many excercises throughout the curriculum that help prepare you and get you confident for your interviews. The assessments (Bloc's 'test' more or less) at the end of each module are done in an interview style, and after each assessment you receive the recording of the session to go over with your mentor.

The curriculum is well balanced between front end and back end programming, and teaching you the fundamentals you need to be successful. It's constantly changing and being updated as you go, and having access to the roadmap even after you complete the course is a great addition. With this said, I would recommend checking in with your mentor regularly regarding your roadmap, especially if your start date and enroll date are spaced out. There were a few times that I ended up doing older modules without realizing, only to find out new ones were available (and the new ones were much better). 

For anyone looking to to learn about Web Development, I would absolutely recommend Bloc. The mentors, students, and Career Services team are all very enthusiastic about helping you achieve your goals. 

So far I've been enjoying my experience in the Web Developer track with Bloc. What's great about it is that they give you just enough in curriculum to get an idea of how it's done, but not enough to just blow through the homework. You really do have to stretch those research and google muscles. The Slack channel is full of helpful folks in your same position, more than happy to help you out. Also, having a mentor meeting once a week has been great when there are those moments that you just can't wrap your mind around a concept. Plus, if you're in the middle of a project and can't seem to get a concept right, they respond to queries very quickly.

If affordabilty is an issue, one of the reasons I chose Bloc was their partnership with Skillsfund. In the past, development "bootcamps" have been really only for a select few people who could afford the high price tag, and kind of felt like a club you had to buy your way in to, and only those who could afford it need apply. I can't thank Bloc enough for that partnership. Without it, having a single income family and a child with special needs, I would have never been able to foot the bill. 

Overall, I highly reccomend it. You will only benefit from your experience.