Chegg Skills

Thinkful was an amazing experience and followed through on their promise. As an out of work Event Planner due to the pandemic, my options were limited and job prospects were extremely bleak. The professional help I received in the classroom and after graduation on the job hunt, really propelled me to getting hired in 2021 in a highly competitive job market. Don’t struggle on your own like I did for months. Get involved with a program at Thinkful today and broaden your network within a positive and dedicated team. My heart felt thanks goes out to Thinkful for getting my new career ladder going this year, and carrying me through the hardest financial months of my life last year. Get started on your future success today, Best Regards, Thinkful Graduate 2020, Brandie : )

Before starting Thinkful’s program, I did extensive research in UX training programs. Based on what turned out to be misrepresentation in advertising, promotional materials of the school, and misrepresentations by representatives of Thinkful, I enrolled in the UX design immersion bootcamp at Thinkful. After three weeks of attendance, the product I received was inadequate and I withdrew for these reasons, in summary:

1. Expectation: a reliable curriculum with dependable syllabus.

What I received: an incomplete curriculum and unreliable syllabus.

Evidence: multiple schedule inaccuracies affecting assignment efficiency, comprehension, and deadlines. Daily, there were conflicting discrepancies between: the reading, assignments, schedule, instruction, and lecture slides. In a survey I conducted, the vast majority of students agreed that the syllabus and dashboard did not align.

2. Expectation: a comprehensive education.

What I received: misappropriation of class hours.

Evidence:

a. School days: homework assignments were completed during 5 of 7 school hours which directly contradicts Thinkful curriculum that states, “Homework, mentor sessions, and independent study are completed outside the scheduled course time.” Performing homework was scheduled during class in lieu of a meaningful curriculum. A mere 1-2 hours were spent in “lecture”- 30% of which was spent watching youtube videos.

b. With assignments: homework expectations were regularly mislabeled, misleading, and unexplained which led to great confusion. In a survey I conducted, the vast majority of students agree that the assignments did not have clear instructions nor expectations. In three weeks, only one assignment (out of thirty) received feedback so there was no gauge for comprehending material.

3. Expectation: support staff available for students.

What I received: our cohort was understaffed and undersupported.

Evidence: I was informed our cohort’s student teacher ratio would be 45:2 and it was 60:1. Due to an obvious lack of cohesion between all departments and program content, when questions were asked the answers often created more confusion because each department, person, or document would have differing and conflicting answers. As a direct result of Thinkful’s disorganization, my education was regularly obstructed because I was not provided the proper tools nor staff support as promised. Multiple Thinkful staff admitted, they were dissatisfied with the program themselves.

Never was Thinkful’s lack of staff, leadership, and knowledge more apparent than when the program director reached out to me, after I withdrew, asking for my insight and feedback. I created a survey to collect data reinforcing the extent of program deficiencies affecting the whole cohort. Interestingly, the day after my survey was released, Thinkful sent out a similar one.

Before withdrawing, I made friends with most of my cohort. Unfortunately, weeks later, their journey in UX education has continued to be impeded by these same issues. Too frequently I receive sad updates from current students overwhelmed by a system that is not set up to promote their success. For the money involved, that is unacceptable to me. If Thinkful had provided an adequate education, or had been willing to listen to feedback, I would still be a student. But they did not.

I had a great overall experience at Thinkful! I did the 6 months part-time course while I worked full time. Thinkful offers lots of support and the curriculum is curated which I think is very important! Means they have control over the information they put out and it's more relevant. The mentor sessions were helpful to clear any questions I had and also get face to face interaction with someone working in the industry. 

The price is definitely worth the course. The only "critique" I have is that they don't do job placement really. But you do get to work with a career coach to help you after you finish the course!

Overall, worth the price!

Thinkful is a great program for anyone who has a passion for Software/ Web Engineering and Development. The prep course is robust and should be used for self reflection/judgement of your own commitment. The mentor system is invaluable and the greater majority of people I’ve met in Thinkful are great teachers and mentors. If you take the program seriously and don’t do yourself the disservice of cheating or working around the course suggestions you will leave with enough skill and knowledge to make a way in the industry. Thinkful is just the first step of your career, but I would say it’s a good first step to take. 

Thinkful offers a dollar store quality product, no offensive intended to the dollar store. As A UX/UI Immersion program student at Thinkful, I have been disappointed each day for the duration of the program. To simplify the issues here is a bulleted list:

• The course curriculum is disorganized and incomplete
• At least twice a week there were inconsistencies in assignment requirements
• Promised support from staff was provided about 10% of the time
• Academic Success Managers were unhelpful and used fear tactics to constantly threaten repercussions for requests to correct program issues
• There is no professional syllabus provided, they do have a google sheet with incorrect due dates 
• There is ZERO flexibility is absence requests, even to take an hour to see a therapist each week, which many students were denied. 
• When a student alluded to thoughts of suicide on the student communication channel, the message was promptly removed, and the school had no interest in contacting the student through alternative channels until prompted by many concerned students. 

Overall you will not be supported in this program. Our class went from 68 to about 35 students. This is a very good way to go into debt with nothing to show for it. 

I would not recommend Thinkful to anyone looking to start a career in UX/UI. 

 I started the program during the peak of the pandemic looking for something new to learn after recently graduating from college. I found Thinkful and decided to try out coding in particular their Data Science Flex program. I did not have much coding experience going in but the program guided me through rudimentary coding to higher levels of coding. This program challenged me and helped changed my mindset to think in code. I would highly recommend this course to anyone, as it is informative for those who have coded before as well as, reasonable for those who have not. The support network for assistance was fantastic, whether it be help on an assignment, or information on the course itself, there was someone in the thinkful program that was there to help quickly and effectively. Not only that, but there is a large community of students, faculty, and graduates that are there to help you along your journey. 

This course was invaluable to my progress towards breaking into the world of Data Analytics. I have learned skills that I would have not learned otherwise. Many of the skills that I learned could be self taught or learned outside of a bootcamp, but I personally benefitted from having a structured environment where I did not need search for the next area of interest. I also hugely benefitted from my bi-weekly mentor check ins. He helped me guide me along the right path if I began to go along a tangent. He played a large part in shaping my views on data and how it can be used to build something beautiful. Without the guidance of a seasoned veteran in the Data Science industry, I would be in a very different place in my journey. I just concluded my course, and am still awaiting to be assigned a careers coach, so I cannot speak to the job assistance yet. However, once I can I will return to amend my review.

Having done the full stack web development route and after finishing up my portoflio, the job hunt came in the city of Detroit.  This was supposed to be one of the good locations to find work however I did not find any job after more than 8 months of searching.  I went to meetups, applied locally, and did all that I can with job boards.  

I started targeting companies that are nearby and contacting each one of them.  I couldn't find work.  Then they started to tell me that I should apply out of state.  This was out of the guarantee for their program.  I ended up giving up.  I lost a year of waiting and applying for jobs.  I only had like 2 interviews.  The other ones just say oh we have chosen other people with more experience than you.

I understand that finding a job is difficult but if you end up spending so long searching and end up with nothing then I guarantee that you will eventually quit.  Look there are so many people going into this field and it is important to distinguish yourself.  Begging for people to take you in is not a very good option.  So keep this in mind when you apply.  You can learn from this program and there are people there to help you however, just keep in mind that rejection is part of the game that you will be playing.  When you enter, read their job guarantee carefully before you pay them.  They came up with excuses after I asked them for mine.  

This program costed me money and time.  Time is all you have so use it wisely.

My overall experience with the Data Analytics Flex program was excellent. The curriculum is challenging but easy to understand if you put in the work. You meet with your mentor 2 times a week. Even if you don’t need help with your work, they will talk to you about their jobs. For example, my mentor showed me how he used SQL and Tableau in his work. The chat function really helped me through Python. I just exited the career search portion with a job and this program 100% helped me get it. Only downside: if you don’t live in one of the bigger cities listed on their site, you won’t qualify for the tuition guarantee. The career coaches want to see you get a job! They are there to answer any questions and review anything. I recommend this program!   

My overall experience at Thinkful was terrific. I enrolled in the Digital Marketing self-paced program, which is perfect if you already have some subject knowledge or marketing experience and need a flexible schedule. The curriculum was well written and highly educational. It filled in the gaps for me as I was self-taught before the course. The program's most valuable aspect was having a mentor that I could meet with twice a week to go over my weekly assignments and discuss their experience in the field. I was also looking to make a career change, and the results of my job search were significantly more successful after completing my course at Thinkful. I walked away with a solid foundation and additional skillsets and a robust portfolio, resume, and LinkedIn page, which made me more competitive in my job search. I landed several interviews and secured a full-time job in marketing within a month after graduating. If you're interested in a digital marketing career, I highly recommend this course!

I completed the Designer Track through Thinkful and I can say my experience at Thinkful undoubtedly landed me my current position. Their mentors and coaches are very helpful both during the course and after graduation. You always feel like you have someone there to help guide you or answer questions whether it's your mentor, one of the assessors, or someone in the Slack channel. The weekly mentor sessions and interview-like assessments are what drew me to Thinkful. It really feels more like an apprenticeship than a bootcamp the way they have it structured, and I really appreciated that. Thinkful is always updating their curriculum to match the needs of the jobs that are out there and adjusting to current standards, which is very helpful on the job search. I graduated just as the pandemic hit, and I cannot speak highly enough of the career coaches after graduation. They and my fellow graduates in the program in our Slack channel helped keep me sane during a rough job search, and I landed a great position after 5 months on the job search thanks to their help!

After working in healthcare, I was inspired by my patients and was curious to push the boundaries of data and statistics to find solutions to improve the efficiency of healthcare delivery. This sparked my love for data and emphasized on the potential of data-driven decisions to help drive a business. With zero programming experience, I was searching for the best remote course that would challenge me and help me develop job-ready skills as a data analyst but also support me. The Data Analytics Flex program allowed me to continue working full-time while learning technical skills such as Excel, SQL, Tableau and Python part-time. The community at Thinkful including fellow students, alumni, mentors and coaches were extremely nice, supportive and helpful. It is a great environment to be in to better yourself as a data analyst and person. Overall, I highly recommend the Thinkful program and would not be in my current role today as a data analyst without my experience there. 

As a recent grad of Thinkful’s DAI program, I am so happy to report positive feedback. I was drawn to this program, because, for me, they guaranteed a job upon graduation, which means they stand by their curriculum and process. I already have a degree, about 10 years of work experience, and prior to Thinkful, I was in the midst of pursuing a second degree. In comparing the two experiences, Thinkful, in my opinion, out-performs the traditional college experience. Thinkful places an emphasis on skillset with practice, current tools, and building a portfolio. While I learned some of the things I did with Thinkful during my degree program, the teaching methods at Thinkful are far more effective and relevant. Additionally, the Thinkful program places students in constant contact with an advisor and a mentor to keep them on track. Staff does not seem overwhelmed and they do not treat you like a number. In college, I’m not sure if my advisor knew my name. Lastly, students are encouraged to interact. I not only found a resource in my peers, but I have made new friends all over the country. I can only speak for the DAI program, but I’m sure if other programs are run like mine, then Thinkful is well worth it. I would highly recommend Thinkful to anyone pursuing further education or additional skills. At the very least contact Thinkful for an info session. You literally have nothing to lose and I think even after that info session, you’ll find that possible outcomes are still in your favor, given the options available to complete Thinkful programs. 

This program's intended purpose is to enable students to become ready for a job as a full-stack developer in 6 months. It allows you to go your own pace and is all conducted online. Thinkful provides both technical curriculum and information/assignments related to getting prepared to get a job (e.g. building a portfolio, updating resume, crafting your LinkedIn profile, essential networking skills). The personnel they provide for your direct support includes an academic success manager and a coding mentor which you meet with for 45 mins, twice a week.

I do not feel qualified to assess the relevancy of their curriculum - what technologies and concepts to include and what to leave out based on the current needs and demands of the tech industry. From the research I have done, the choices they made seem to align with the general trajectory of web development.

As for the quality of their curriculum. I think much of what they have is solid. There will be times where outside resources will be helpful - YouTube, medium articles, any developer friends you might have. Their curriculum is kept up to date - but is static in nature. It is words and images - not voices and videos. The medium may be a bit old school - but it worked for me.

There were times where you could see gaps in their ability to teach. For example, they had an entire module where they assigned difficult coding challenge related to algorithms and data structures, but did not provide solutions to the problem set. There was no grading or direct feedback in this segment of the curriculum which makes it impossible to know what a more professional, efficient, clean coding solution might look like.

The focus was definitely on the frontend (JavaScript, HTML, CSS, jQuery, React) which left me wanting to know more on the backend. I do not feel prepared to do anything beyond the more rudimentary server-side tasks.

My experience with my coding mentor was lacking. There were more than a few times where they would cancel last minute or just not show. Mine had a focus on Java and backend development which doesn't really align with the focus of the program itself. I am sure they were very competent at what they knew best, but there were quite a large number of times where I would ask questions and receive answers something like "In Java I would do this and that... But I'm not sure how that works in JavaScript". It is possible that your experience would be different - it depends on who you end up being paired with.

Let me speak more broadly now about my experience and recommendations.

Was it easy? No.

Was it worth it? For me, yes.

Would I recommend it to a friend? Probably not... but it depends.

It was hard. It was lonely. It was frustrating. It was dense. I feel exhausted from it all. BUT, I do feel ready to obtain a position as a frontend developer. I am a much more competent developer than before I started the program. And I feel like my job hunting artifacts (resume, portfolio, LinkedIn) are more solid than ever.

I do not think everyone would succeed in this program. I have an engineering degree and am quite capable of thinking deeply and understanding complex concepts. I am able to use available resources online to learn and resolve most blocks I run across without someone holding my hand. I am motivated and probably could have learned these skills without Thinkful. I imagine there are plenty of people who would not be able to handle the work load, pacing, required discipline, and/or lack of hand-holding. To be clear, I don't say this from a place of judgement - everybody has their strengths and weaknesses, and their preferred learning styles. But it is meant as a warning. For many, I would recommend choosing a different route. Maybe in person? Maybe a program with a smaller, more focused curriculum?

My best guess as to why this was effective for me was that I committed when I put my money down to graduating this program and I really knew I wanted to become a developer. Also, having the curriculum was so helpful because it narrowed down the endless possibilities of what I should learn next. There are so many technologies and concepts one could explore in the realm of software development. To have a path laid out for me prevented me from becoming overwhelmed and paralyzed. I imagine this is somewhat like having a personal trainer develop a workout plan for you. All you have to do is what s/he is telling you. You are freed to focus on simply executing instead deciding what to do. This was what Thinkful provided.

I more than likely would take this path again if I were granted a do-over. But there is a chance I could have gotten similar results without Thinkful and saved a lot of money. 

Before choosing Thinkful's full-stack flex program, I would recommend you explore your options. If you do decide to go with Thinkful - really commit. Trust their curriculum and process. And don't be afraid to ask for what you need (e.g. a new coding mentor, time off to recover before restarting).

May you find the path that works best for you and your goals. Good luck!

Thinkful seemed like a great choice after completing the prep course work. The prep coursework was slightly challenging, you had to pass an interview-like assessment of your knowledge, and you have a mentor helping you along the way. Normally, I would assume, the prep course would be a good indication of what to expect through the main curriculum but unfortunately that was not the case with Thinkful. My first disappointment was having to use jQuery in building the first few app projects in the course. After learning and using JavaScript in the prep course, this should have continued through the curriculum. 

Pair programming was another disappointment for me. Having to pair with fellow students makes sense in general but it was a chaotic mess when working with people who were not able to do what pair programming was meant to do, solve a problem when the driver hits a bug. I found the majority of people unable to help in this concept and just relied on the one knowledgeable person to do all the work while they pretended to be helpful. It's very similar to a group project where one person does nothing while reaping the benefits of other's work. I found it very frustrating. Pair programming with your mentor would have been a better approach in my opinion instead of pairing with other students. 

Thinkful is a factory model of bootcamps which is something I wish I realized before deciding to partake in their course. The factory model is a time-based model, not a comprehension based model. You learn for a fixed amount of time, and then you move on regardless of the level of comprehension. Everyone learns at a different pace so if you don't understand the concepts completely before getting new concepts the next day, you fall behind very quickly. This became more apparent when it came to pairing with other students in the cohort. With this approach, it's very hard to actually know the material and be successful outside of the bootcamp. Yes you are assessed along the way and if you fail to pass the assessment after 2 attempts, you're out of the bootcamp. To truly be successful here, you MUST already know coding and software development before enrolling in this bootcamp or be a super level genius but if you already know software development, why do this bootcamp? Seems pointless to me and a waste of a lot of money. 

If you truly want to learn and master the concepts of software development, this bootcamp is not for you. If you have coding experience and want to waste your money with surface level understanding of pretty general you can learn on your own from the internet concepts, then give Thinkful a try. After my brief time with Thinkful, I do not recommend it.