Bloc

I enrolled in the front end apprenticeship in September. It was a fantastic experience. Although I did have some difficulty at first with some of the JavaScript content, my mentor got me to where I needed to be. I think that the highlight of Bloc's program is its curriculum (which is constantly changing) and the mentors they hire to get apprentices through. The significant plus of the program is the mentorship, and they constantly challenge you with the material and extra material that's relevant to today's developers. I hesitated about joining Bloc because of the cost, but it was well worth it. I am actually going through their Ruby apprenticeship now, which I am finding difficult, but challenging and rewarding. They have added new material to their Ruby program, so I am having fun and learning a lot of new concepts and ways of thinking about programming that differ from my knowledge of JavaScript.

Bloc was helpful and I do recommend it to people, however it has some drawbacks.  

The positives:

- Great for students who are self driven
- Straight-forward curriculum
- Forces students to learn/research on their own
- Flexibility

The negatives:

- Limited time with a mentor
- Mentors were widely inconsistent in their knowledge and experience (I spoke with 6 along the way, mine was great luckily)
- Cannot cover topics with the same depth as other bootcamps
- Almost zero help with job placement (but you should be networking anyways...so not an issue if you actually plan)
 

My experience doing Full Stack Web Development Course at Bloc.io was an amazing journey from beginning to end!  I came into it without any background in computer programming and now I can build my own web applications.  My mentor was incredible.  He really understood where I was in my learning process at each point in the curriculum, and was therefore able to scaffold my learning so I didn't feel frustrated.  The office hours mentors are really great as well!  I don't know of any other bootcamp that has such extensive office hours.  Being able to get help when you need it makes all the difference. I would highly recommend Bloc's bootcamp!

I just finished Bloc about two weeks ago and am going through their job prep program right now, working 1-on-1 with their CTO doing practice technical interviews.

I’d say that the best part of my Bloc experience was the feeling of finishing a web app or site and moving on to the next one. The feeling of “I did this!” And then the being able to create a solid portfolio that shows the work that you’ve done, its just really gratifying and useful. In fact, that’s actually why I chose Bloc. I wanted to be able to come out with all the knowledge I’d need for a RoR job, but also be able to show what I could do becuase that’s a big part of getting a good job.

I also really liked Bloc’s mentorship aspect because I know that going in I had a ton of questions. Before I enrolled in Bloc’s Full Stack course I was teaching myself Ruby on Rails for about 4 months. But as I messed around with the XAMP stack I was also trying to improve my CSS/HTML skills. So having someone help me break down each of the languages and frameworks I realized where my gaps in knowledge were and what I really needed help with. My mentor, John, was just really helpful, and had a lot of information. If there were things I didn’t know the answers to, we would look it up and solve it together.

I recently graduated from Bloc, and in the time I signed up to leaving I have:

Learned the fundamentals of the Ruby language

Built three functioning web applications

Found not only a mentor, but a friend

Have lifetime access to Bloc's curriculum

Lifetime access to their open office hours.

If you can afford it, it's definitely worth the investment. You'll pick up an incredible new skill and become more creative in the process. They've also got a diversity scholarship in partnership with New Relic that could possibly save you some money. Also, they have a pretty good referral program, $100 off your tuition if you sign up through someone's referral link. It doesn't put much of a dent in the tuition, but an easy $100 back is always worth it.

I completed the 12-week Full Stack Course with Bloc just two months ago. 

Pros:

I could work/learn from anywhere with an internet connection, so I went home to the Philippines, lived rent-free for 3 months, got to spend time with family, while learning Rails development.

My mentor was engaged and cared about how I was learning - the one-on-one connection is rare opportunity. So much was accomplished in the 30 minute meetings. We are still in touch now, taking Coursera classes together.

I loved the pace, and that I was able to go my own pace. For me, this meant 9 hour days learning new concepts, or 4 hours debugging with Stack Overflow, or spending a day playing with Bootstrap. I was able to choose what I wanted to focus on.

Bloc is an amazing community. From the very beginning I had a real person call to onboard and ask me about my goals. Upon enrollment I got a welcome package. I get check ups from program coordinators. Little things like this let me know that they are accessible and are invested in my learning.

Cons:

The course gave me enough to be able to lay out the solid foundations of a Rails application. But it doesn't look pretty. I would have liked to have more exposure to front-end technologies (Ajax, jquery). 

After Bloc, I would've loved to even just a small document giving me options on the next step. Maybe that's delving deeper into CS with algorithm design, or learning Javascript for front-end, or going with the MEAN stack. When I submitted the capstone, I was left thinking, okay now what ? 

Job prep is exactly that, a prep for interviews, giving you technical topics to review and hints on how to present yourself honestly. I wish there was more of a network or platform for Bloc alumni and employers to meet. This is hard for Bloc as each student has her own completion date, but one can dream.

I recommend Bloc to someone new to development and is committed to delving deeper. 

Bloc is an amazing program and I highly recommend it for anyone looking to delve deeper into the world of coding.  

I became interested in development because I have an entreprenuerial streak and wanted to learn how to build out some of my own ideas. Bloc has provided me with the skills to do just that.

Furthermore - I am going through the job-prep phase now and I am confident that this will further prepare me for finding work as a developer.

The recommend Bloc for the following reasons - 

1. Mentors - Bloc has amazing mentors - and I absolutely loved working with mine. The fact that you are assigned a single mentor - and they work with you one-on-one really allows them to cater to your learning style and customize the material so that it is presented in a way that is clear for you. Their mentors are very high quality, and my Mentor, Chris, was beyond helpful.

Furthermore - for anyone who has learned on their own and spent copious amounts of time banging their head against the wall - the mentor is there to make sure you do not get stuck and can progress forward. Having this help and not having to waste time was invaluable to me.

2. Curriculum - The curriculum itself is great and I liked the way it was strucutred. It allowed for more hand holding at the beginning and then worked its way to more freedom towards the end. The fact that you are able to build several applications by yourself throughout the course - allows you to see the progression of your own skills as you move thorugh the curriculum.

3. Cost and accountabtiliy - I wanted a program that would hold me accountable and push me - but also one I could afford. Bloc is much less expensive than the other bootcamps so I could actually afford it. Furthermore - it created a framework where between the curriculum and the Mentor - I was able to hold myself accountable and push myself. 

Again, I would highly recommend Bloc - it is a great investment in ones' skillset -but like anything else - you get out of it what you put into it. So if you are willing to work hard, Bloc will help you leverage that effort to get you to where you want to go.

I'm a graduate of the UX design course and I'm starting the Job Prep. I think BLOC is a great solution if you want to enhance your skill, without having to commit with an 'on campus' course. I had to take the course while I was working and I was looking for an online course that also had a bit of human touch and interaction. BLOC was perfect in that sense: the plus value of having one-to-ones with a mentor during the week is invaluable and something that is hard to find in on line courses.

I'm a designer and I'm already working as academic lecturer, but I wanted to move towards the UX design area and BLOC met my expectations. I wanted to create a good collection of work to build my portfolio and eventually enter the UX design world and the meetings with my mentor really helped me with that.

Additionally, I've been contacted at the end of the course for starting the Job Prep and so far I'm excited about what they cover and I'm sure that's exaclty what I need.

As student you will receive tons of suggestions and references by tutors, students and the BLOC team in general, so that you'll definetly know how to spend your free time!

Of course this course requires your effort and you'll need to work in your free time to get the work done (late evenings and week ends mainly, in my case), but you'll be willing to do that in order to achieve the goal you set to yourself, I suppose!

Great experience overall, highly recommended if you want to make a twist in your career and you want to be in touch with great people.

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.  

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.