Chegg Skills

A little over a week ago, I completed the Immersive UX/UI program at Thinkful. The program is intensive; there was a lot of information to take in in five months; nevertheless, they were willing to work with me based on my situation. Thinkful's support and the academic team are fantastic; they understand that life is full of unpredictable events, and they were willing to support me based on my situation. My family and I are deeply affected by COVID-19, my ASM, mentor, and the academic team were able to help me and give me options to remain enrolled to complete the program. Thinkful offers a wide range of tuition options; my family and I benefited much from the ISA + stipend. Overall, I believe the curriculum adequately equipped me for my new career in user experience and interface design. Each week we got a deeper understanding of each phase in the design process. All of the instructors and ASM's are professional and knowledgeable, and so are most mentors. Upon graduating, I've been working closely with a careers specialist who has been assisting me in finding work with my new profound knowledge.

I recently completed the UX Design Immersion program. I'm really glad I did it, though I am still looking for a job (I just graduated 2 weeks ago - why I left the job Assistance as N/A, though they do seem to have a great assistance program from what I can tell.) Some other students in my cohort were already interviewing/landed roles before graduation but they tended to have some background in design already. I think this program is a great way to get into UX and really teaches you everything you need to know. It moves fast though and we didn't often revisit topics once we had moved on (so take good notes and look at them again later.) My only critiques would be that student should receive more hands on training in the design software (Figma) and the web building platform (Webflow for building our portfolio). Just because I am able to pass a design assignment doesn't necessarily mean I did it in the most efficient way possible, ya know? YouTube and forums help and further self study with the software is recommended if you want to get the most out of it. That should be exciting not daunting - this is our careers we are talking about so hit it hard because this is all for you!

I recently graduated from Thinkful in March of 2021. My experience with Thinkful was for sure a mixed bag of some amazing experiences and then several regrettable situations. I had heard about Thinkful from a friend who had been through their program 3 years before. He raved about the mentorship and the pair-programming that happened through the program to help you learn software development. The mentor assigned to me was AMAZING. He went above and beyond to serve and help me survive a very rocky cohort. However, by the time I started the program they had switched models from pair-programming to working in online remote teams of 4 to 5 people. These teams were loosely structured and didn't provide enough accountability or support through the program to really help. The reason I signed up for the Engineering Immersion program was that I knew accountability, camaraderie, and going through this tough program with others would be crucial to my success. However, two months into the program I found myself working alone for the last 3 months. This made finishing the program much harder and more grueling. Although I have heard that they have since restructured their team structures to be more involved and structured, my experience with this was very negative. 

Another unfortunate situation in my cohort was that they removed Office Hours as something that was offered to students at the beginning of my program. I signed up for this program thinking that was something that would be included in my support structure only to have it taken away a couple of weeks into the program. This was disappointing and frustrating to have the program changed on you once you had already begun. 

To discuss other aspects of the program. The curriculum was excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed learning from it! My Academic Success Manager was PHENOMENAL and was wholeheartedly dedicated to my success! If it had not been for her, I do not think I would have survived this program. The majority of the teachers were excellent and very helpful. I only had one instructor who I found to be subpar during my REACT section of the program. The TAs were very mixed for me. For some of them, it didn't feel like they knew what in the world they were doing and consistently wasted my time trying to help me solve a problem. However, there were some amazing TAs who were repeatedly helpful and amazing! As I mentioned above, my mentor was phenomenal, though I definitely heard from other students that their mentors were subpar. My advice would be not to hesitate to ask for a new mentor if you find yourself in the latter situation. The career coaches have been exemplary. Every single one of them I've had contact with has been exceptional. Some say they are the highest value part of this program.

The reason that I believe that I can still leave a good review for Thinkful is the team that surrounded me on my journey. They supported me and helped me every step of the way and without them, there would be no way that I would ever have graduated from this program. Bootcamps are unmistakably hard and difficult programs and Thinkful isn't perfect. But if you are committed to learning Software Development and want a jumpstart to getting into the industry, I believe it is an excellent route to go.

I graduated from the Immersion Software Engineering program a month ago. Overall, the course was paced very quickly and, unless you have prior experience with code, prepare to spend the majority of your free time trying to dissect the material. The coursework is broken down into modules and, within each module, there is a checkpoint with an assessment (this is autograded for the most part) that will need to be completed. There are a few capstone projects which make good portfolio features and there are several technical assessments in the form of a live interview that you have to pass in order to graduate.

This autograding system, I learned, was a new addition to the course and my cohort was the first the experience it. That being said, there were quite a few bugs that posed significant challenges in getting the material completed; however, the academic success team is quite flexible and, so long as you are forthcoming and an active communicator, you will not be penalized for missing a deadline for a valid reason. I'd also like to shout out the team who handles bug reports and any curriculum-specific concerns -- they were highly responsive and invested in fixing and improving upon what was already there. They were also quite eager to receive feedback and actively sought it out.

The quality of the instructors varied and while none of them were "bad" in any capacity, some definitely outshone the rest in terms of enthusiasm, general knowledge, and control of the flow of the class. A lot of the work throughout the day is done in groups which are randomly reassigned on a weekly basis. The expectation is that you'll have your webcam on the entire time and are present and interacting with your group members. 

Overall, I had to use a lot of outside resources to get my work done but as a dev this is pretty typical. Referencing official documentation is relied on and heavily encouraged! I didn't find the workload to be more than I could handle but I also spent pretty much every waking moment doing something related to the course. 

The careers team blew me away. As soon as I graduated, they contacted me and sent me dozens of job listings daily, and made connections for me. They checked in often and were so quick to respond. I genuinely felt that they had my best interests at heart and, thanks entirely to them, I was referred to a company and accepted a position within three weeks of graduation. 

I enrolled in the program July 2020, completed curriculum (with a full time remote job) in December 2020, officially graduated January 2021, and accepted a position in the field in May 2021.

Pros
The curriculum was written and paced well enough for someone with no coding experience to complete. That's not to say it was easy. I spent a lot of time reading, re-reading, and annotating notebooks to grasp concepts. But it's for sure do-able. I have a match background which helped some. Plus, if you do get stuck, you can ask your mentor, utilize a chat feature, or post in the Slack community (after Googling & checking Stack Overflow of course). 

The mentorship received from your one on one mentor is amazing! Having someone to ask questions to, get feedback or different ideas from, or even ask for resources on topics was extremely helpful throughout the process.

The careers counseling after graduation is top notch! The resources of a personal careers counselor, with "curriculum," around networking, LinkedIn, resume/cover letter, applying, and negotiating were beyond my expectations. Definitely utilize these recourses as much as possible.

Thinkful's Data Science Flex program was more affordable than other similar boot camps. I heard others complain about the financing but I don't have experience with that aspect. 

Cons
The grading thoroughness was inconsistent, depending on who graded your work. 

I had a great experience with my mentor at first but that changed about halfway through the program as they took on 15 additional students when enrollment in the Data Analyst program got an unexpected boost, started missing scheduled meetings, showed up delirious once, and wouldn't communicate scheduling issues ahead of time. They tried to make up for it by continuing to meet after graduation, but issues persisted. I am totally aware this could be a one off experience and would reiterate this mentor was great at first and still very much value this mentor's feedback as we keep in touch.

There were featured added to the program that enrollees right after me got that I didn't and couldn't get access to. For example, the Python Skills Assessments, maybe modules too, are on the Qualified platform. Because I had already finished that module by the time Thinkful implemented it, I couldn't get access to it. I thought the experience on Qualified's platform could've prepared me better for take home assignments/challenges that companies give through similar platforms. 

 Overall I found the course to be quite engaging and comprehensive when learning full-stack web development. Having taken several programming classes in college years prior to Thinkful, I never fully grasped creating a completely functional program until I took the boot camp. 
Pros:

• The PERN Stack is what is being taught
• It is taught in a logical, ordered manner from front-end, back-end, then database
• Many different technologies and frameworks are introduced
• You'll have a completed portfolio by the end
• You have mentoring sessions to supplement the class time

Cons:

• Some tools are outdated
• The pace can be quite fast
• Some material, in my opinion, needs to be expounded upon 
• The data structures and algorithms section really needs to be taught more thoroughly

If you're thinking about taking the web development immersion course, you can succeed as long as you treat it like a real job and dedicate as much as possible to completing the assignments and doing the readings. In the end, you'll be impressed with how much you've learned and can start as a junior developer confidently. 

I had been working as a graphic designer for 8 years and came to a point where I was bored, feeling like my skills were becoming increasingly irrelevant, and wanting more out of my career. After doing some searching online for ways to build my skills/make a career move, I came across Thinkful's UX/UI Design Flex bootcamp. Everything about it sounded exactly like the career move I was looking for, and it worked great with my schedule.

After completing the program, I can't say enough how grateful I am for the mentorship and coaching, as well as the relevant coursework. 6 months after graduating, I've landed my dream job making more money that I ever thought possible for myself. What I will say is that you get out of it what you put in. If you go into it with a hunger to learn and the humility to receive constructive feedback, you will succeed. My advice to anyone who takes the program is to gain as much relevant experience during and after the program i.e. volunteer work, internships, etc.

Overall I had a great experience with Thinkful and I would sign up again in a heartbeat. You will truly get back whatever you put in to it. Most people I knew put in a significant amount of EXTRA time to either catch up on assignments that they were behind on or just to learn the material better. The curriculum is definitely fast paced but it's all very relevant to the job market in which you will be entering upon graduation which makes getting a job that much easier. My cohort in general was the first iteration of a new variation of the curriculum which meant there we some typos and a few bugs but they were never of any significance.

The instructors were all great and had a TON of experience so no matter the questions you had for them, they were almost always able to answer them for you. A lot of my fellow graduates have already obtained jobs and it's been less than a month since graduating.

My biggest pieces of advice: sign up for the next cohort, put as much time in as you possibly can (seriously), and apply to jobs very early (our cohort started in December, I started applying in January, received an offer in March).

You can learn more for free and end up with no debt. I recently graduated from the UX/UI immersion program and I don't feel equipped for the workforce and I need to pay ~ 30k (I was a living stipend student). Save yourself and go with coursera or Google and read Sprint by Jake Knapp. I'm really disappointed with the curriculum. On top of that, my current career coach has not helped me in any valuable way and never responds to me. Let's see if I am even able to land a decent job to pay off this insane debt. 

It was in the midst of the anguished-filled 2020 pandemic where I realized that I did NOT want to work (cranky) customer-facing retail for the rest of my increasingly uncertain days!

I already had a STEM background. Years ago, I had obtained a Bachelor's of Science in Environmental Studies from a large state university. In retrospect, one of my greatest regrets was not properly seeking out internships or training for job seeking itself while I was still an undergraduate. Hence me now languishing, working underemployed in retail during a pandemic despite having an undergraduate degree. I had no proper guidance or motivation to effectively job search, network, or practice interviews post-graduation long ago!

Because I already had a STEM background, learning some data analytics concepts wasn't too difficult or foreign to me. While obtaining my B.S. degree, I already learned how to implement basic Excel spreadsheet functions, create effective PowerPoint presentations, calculate basic statistical functions, and think scientifically and critically. Online Thinkful coursework can begin easily enough while motivation is high, but unfortunately the coursework can become more challenging while motivation diminishes! This is why I really appreciated weekly mentor online meetings. These regular mentor meetings and email communications kept me accountable, on track, helped me solve coursework roadblocks, and reassured my occasional Imposter Syndrome away. 

The benefits of education online is that it's very flexible to students' personal schedules (especially the "flex" programs, as per their names). Additionally, online school during a pandemic has no risk of contagion spread, unlike traditional in-person education. With that said, one must be DISCIPLINED and create a determined weekly schedule to effectively succeed in such a flexible education! This same learning flexibility can make it very tempting for a student to slack off and not learn or complete work as effectively! Always remember why you originally started this program when the motivation gets very low...

Additionally, the Thinkful data analytics flex program coursework is only a starting point to learn certain technologies and programming languages- it is not the end all, be all! Luckily, there are countless different resources out there to supplement the learning of Excel, PowerPoint, SQL, Tableau, and Python 3. There are books, ebooks, YouTube videos, LinkedIn further education videos, blogs, Slack groups, online coding practice websites, Stack Overflow, and even TikTok videos to practice and reinforce data analytics and data science technologies and concepts. Choose the best learning medium(s) for oneself! How else was I supposed to practice coding proper syntax in SQL and Python 3 outside of the Thinkful course content?

The most valuable resource to me personally was the career-related coursework in Thinkful. This was the critical jobsearching information that I never learned back when I was an undergraduate that could have theoretically help start my environmental science career with my newly minted skillset back then...if I could have just learned this as an undergraduate! Thinkful coursework includes how to effectively write resumes and cover letters; craft an eye-catching LinkedIn profile; network and conduct informational interviews; and excel in behavoral and culture fit interviews. After all, what use is one's new job skillset if one cannot effectively advertise oneself in the jobmarket to get hired in the new prospective field in the first place?

Very helpfully, post-graduation I have a career couch who, similar to my mentors during my main coursework, give me effective job-hunting advice and motivation via weekly video meetings and regular email correspondence. This is crucial for me to actually land my first data analytics role post-graduation with my new skillset! As of this review writing, within the first month of me job hunting using the career couching, I have not yet received any job offers. However, I have received two job interview screening requests! I am very hopeful, despite how mentally and emotionally grueling job searching activities can typically be!

Overall, I would definitely recommend Thinkful courses, especially to STEM-minded individuals needing a quick career reboot in the very prospective and rapidly growing tech industries!

Thinkful was a great bootcamp that helped me understand the in's and out's of the UX/UI design process. They have great financing options for any type of situation which made the decision a no-brainer for me. The instructors were great and knowledgeable and my mentor was amazing. My mentor helped me a lot during the course and kept it real with me throughout the whole process. He made learning a lot easier and progressing in my skills much smoother. I feel really confident coming out of the bootcamp and I'm excited to start working in the field as a certified UX/UI designer.

Thinkfuls Data Science Immersion program is amazing. My instructor, mentor, ASM were friendly and always willing to help me beyond what I expected. There are many ways to reach out for help when the instructor isn't available like the TA's and Thinkchat (you can chat with technical experts and were live almost all day!). 

Although this is a fast paced program, there are many materials to learn from. For example, the modules, instructor lectures, and team assignments so it was easy to get practice. You will go over how to use git and github, postgreSQL, A/b testing, supervised and unsupervised learning, time series analysis/forcasting, natural language processing (nlp), neural networks, big data, and more. The modules go along with the lectures well so if you don't understand the reading, you can discuss it with yout instructor the next day in your meetings. There are 4 projects (capstones) that I did and had the freedom to pick a dataset or even collect it there were no constraints. They give you about a week to finish your projects but for the final it's about 2 weeks. You will have to present some capstones like the final with an assesor ( All the assessors have been very friendly and spend extra time giving you advice in detail afterwards for both interviews and projects). For projects that dont require an assesor my cohort and I had to present to one another and get feedback. 

The best part of Thinkful is that they integrate Careers into the learning. For example, they teach you how to make an effective resume/cover letter, go over different types of interviews (and towards the end have an assessor grade you live). They then grade this work and always give an explanation on how to improve.

I only had positive experiences with Thinkful. The staff are great and want you to succeed after graduating which is so motivating!

I did my extensive research and interview before I decided to enroll in Thinkful. They have the best value. 
1. You can learn the first few checkpoints to decide if this is a good fit for you, both the career path and curriculum
2. You can switch out your mentor and ASM if they are not compatible with you, we all have different personality, as long as we keep it professional
3. You will have somebody to reach out to should you have questions at any humanly possible hour, you are not alone, there is an entire community backing you up

You will be learning web development through Javascript, HTML, CSS, jQuery, React, Node.js, Express.js, Java (after you graduate), and an intro on algorithm. I can't tell you if any of these would be 100% useful for you, but Thinkful gave me a chance, gave me a head start on my new career.

Yes, you may struggle and question yourself. But all you need to do is ask for help, and Thinkful will provide within their best ability. 

 It has been a real pleasure to be part of the Thinkful software engineering program. Attending Thinkful gave me guidance and direction when I was trying to resume my career after a gap. I had been looking at online boot camps for some time and came across Thinkful. After researching each of the different curriculums I decided that Software Engineering is the one I was most interested in. Before the course, they offer Prep-coursework to prepare for applying for the full course which was not only free but also I had a mentor who helps me twice a week.  Each week, there was a pair programming which I enjoyed a lot. This is a great program! I have been challenged with every project.  Each week we go through quite a charming learning process in the platform. Then there is a project where you can imply the knowledge from the lessons and are being reviewed by the grading team. The best part of the program is your dedicated mentor who assists you with learning the concepts, while even providing additional resources to help you work through the problems. From my experience, all the questions I had were answered by the really wonderful staff members through email or Slack. Whether it's the technical support team who will answer challenging tasks questions or the community managers and mentors in the interacting platform. There's always someone to answer my question and it seems like they really care about the students' progress and they are eager to see them finish the course successfully. 
 During the course, they offer coursework to prepare for applying for jobs however I found it hard to balance that with my main coursework. But you can wait until after graduation and they are still there to help you prepare. We will have your dedicated career coach who will show you a great way to contact the employer yourself. The amount of job support you get is good for the price of the course and they do also have various payment options available according to your need.  With the growing number of boot camps out there, I think it can be difficult to take the leap and jump in, and I recognize that there was a bit of luck that went into my success, but if you are curious about software Development and able to work hard to develop your portfolio, I think Thinkful is worth looking into.

This is a great remote UX/UI design program focused on learning design thinking, user research/testing, wireframing, prototyping, visual design, content strategy, information architecture, and branding. I learned industry-based practices and design process standards focused on UX research, visual design, and front-end development. 

The program is not everyone's style; expect to work very hard, but to have the support. It's very much about what you put into the program, and then you will get it back. 

I felt very supported by my mentor, instructors, and everyone involved within the program.