Changes at Bloc
Big doings for the Bloc community! I got a couple of emails from Bloc over the past few weeks I thought I would enter into the record for anyone in the future that finds these blog posts while they are researching remote coding bootcamps/schools, especially if they are trying to decide between Bloc and Thinkful like I was:
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From: Head of Student Success
To: Koop
Date: Mon, Apr 9, 2018 at 7:00 AM
Subject: BIG news at Bloc!
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Hey Bloc Family!
We have some big news to share! Today we are so excited to announce that Bloc has joined forces with Thinkful to create a company that will lead the industry in accelerating career growth for our current and future students.
We are super excited to become part of the Thinkful team and we hope you will be excited as well. As a student of Bloc, very little will change about your experience. Bloc will continue to operate independently. This means you will keep your mentor and mentor sessions, continue to have technical coaching, group sessions, receive support from Bloc’s Student Success Team, maintain access to your curriculum after you complete the program, and all the other benefits of being a Bloc student.
This deal allows us to devote more experience, expertise, and resources to provide you with the best education possible to prepare you for your new career. It will also allow Bloc to continue to build out more programs to serve you over the course of your career so that you never stop learning and growing. More details to come soon about these exciting new developments.
Thinkful and Bloc are the #1 and #2 rated online technical education providers according to Course Report. We have the same missions and values so it makes perfect sense for us to collaborate and build programs that will impact the largest number of students.
You can read more about this exciting deal here. As always, if you have any questions, please reach out to the Student Success team.
Keep Hacking the Planet!
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Erin Rosenblatt
Head of Student Success at Bloc
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I have some misgivings about this only because I have been around long enough to have seen firsthand that assurances nothing/very little will change usually mean the opposite and are probably not going to amount to jack squat. It’s just what executives say to try and keep employees and more importantly revenue streams (i.e. students) in place while they make plans to change just about everything. As the article Bloc shared above states: “This seems to suggest that with the acquisition, Bloc will eventually become a west coast arm of Thinkful and operate fully under the Thinkful brand and leadership team.” One reason I chose Bloc over Thinkful was I felt Bloc had a superior brand and I wanted that name behind me over Thinkful’s when I went out to make my way in the industry, and after so much research and calculation on my ROI I’m not happy things are changing after the fact. I’ve never gone a school that was bought by another before. It just makes it feel less like a school and more like a business, and me less like a student and more like a customer. But ultimately semantics are just that and I know the name of my code school is inconsequential compared to the fact that I can code at a high level of proficiency and be a good team member; and I’m not worried achieving that here whether the name is Bloc or Thinkful. In line with assurances given nothing has changed so far, except the below additions to the WDT (Web Developer Track)!:
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From: Director of Program Development
To: Koop
Date: Fri, Apr 20, 2018 at 12:39 PM
Subject: Updates to your WDT roadmap
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Hello WDT students,
When you first signed up for WDT, we promised you not only to teach web development but to also prepare and certify you for finding a developer job. To that end, we’ve added three upcoming modules to your roadmap: certification, capstone fundamentals, and job search.
What is the Certification module about?
The Job Ready Certification will take you through an industry standard interview process. This is the same format that many companies use when hiring developers onto their teams. The interview is a very typical three-part process: a phone screen, a technical interview, and a take-home project.
The phone screen is the same experience that a company recruiters use. Recruiters need to decide if it makes sense to bring you into an interview with more technical staff. In our version, you’ll have 30 minutes to answer the same kinds of questions in a remote session.
The technical interview is similar to common “whiteboard” or pair-programming interviews. In our version, you’ll have 60 minutes to work through technical challenges with our interview panelists.
Finally, our take-home project covers a common scenario. Employers often ask that you work on a small project and share your solution with them. In our version, you’ll have a week to work on a project and then 30 minutes to take our panelist through your solution.
Once you’re looking for a job as a developer, companies will ask you to go through an interview process like this. Our Job Ready Certification will give you a chance to practice. Upon completion, you’ll assure yourself (and us) that you’re ready to find a job that you’ve been working towards since you first decided to enroll with us.
What is the Capstone Fundamentals module about?
Up until now, your roadmap projects have taken you through how to build a specific project step by step. This module helps take your training wheels off. You can work on your own project using approaches that professionals use when starting a new application from scratch.
It can be daunting to start a whole new project when you’re starting out. This module will equip you to start any idea you have and get something live and working within two weeks. In almost all cases, your first iteration won’t have everything you’re thinking of. It will though result in a starter project that you can build on to add more features to. You’ll know how to move from vague idea and a blank screen to something you can start showing potential users — a key skill of software developers.
What is the Job Search module about?
We have dedicated Career Developers that coach and support you through your job search. This module will help keep you on track after you complete the Job Ready Certification. It will make sure the resources you need are always at your fingertips. You’ll have advice and accountability from our career support specialists.
When will I see the content in these modules?
As you work through your roadmap, you’ve seen that when you completed one module and its assessment, the next module is opened for you. Likewise, these new modules will become available to you as you reach them.
We are busy putting the final touches on these pieces so that they’re ready for you when you get there. These modules were always intended to be part of your main roadmap, and now you can see that they’re coming online!
What if I have questions?
If you have questions about these modules or how they impact your roadmap, please ask your mentor or our Student Success Counselors at success@bloc.io.
Once you’re in these modules, your mentor will be able to answer more detailed questions for you. During the Certification module, your mentor can help you understand the process and how to prepare for the interviews. Like any interview (and any assessment), you’ll have to answer the questions and do the project work on your own. In those places, your mentor and Technical Coaches can only explain the process, not help you with the technical work.
We’re excited to bring these parts of your experience online. And you should look forward to the addition of extension modules soon if you decide you want to continue your education past the core material. We strive to set every student up for the success they want to reach!
TLDR; The final modules of your program have been added to your roadmap: your capstone, job ready certification, and job search module. These modules are key to getting you ready to successfully land a developer job. If you have questions, please email success@bloc.io.
Richard
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Richard Newman
Director, Development Programs
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These additions, even though taking more time = money, can only mean good things for me as student and increase the value of my apprenticeship in the real world. In fact I believe some if not all of this was already in the curriculum somewhere as part of other things, the interview training, the job ready cert, I think even the capstone project though I could be confused (at least I always assumed I had one coming up here at Bloc). It’s just that now they are being promoted to full Module status with formal sub-sections and checkpoints. Again, more time for me which means more money in monthly subscription fees but I can see how I will benefit directly from all of it so a big ‘Yeah!’ from me on this. I asked my mentor if the curriculum expansion was prompted by the Thinkful merger and incorporation of bits from their philosophy and programs and she said no, it has been long in the works. So lucky me, as I get in on the expansion plus I’m among the first to go through the node backend program instead of the Rails sequence, and underscores the main reason I chose Bloc: cutting edge curriculum and evolves rapidly.
So that’s all I know about what’s changing at Bloc right now. Feel free to hit me up with any questions!
