Bloc Reviews: What is it Like Attending Bloc?
by Prachi Singh, Alumni Relations @ Bloc
One of my favorite alums, Brian Douglas, recently told me that by blogging prolifically about his Bloc journey, he constantly gets emails from students asking him about his experience. They ask him questions like:
- Would you recommend I take Bloc?
- How does Bloc.io’s mentor-lead online approach compare to top coding bootcamps like Hack Reactor and Dev Bootcamp?
Brian always says the same thing: Bloc is awesome. It can change your life. But we figured we’d help Brian out by gathering-up Bloc reviews from third-party sites in one place.
Bloc Named One of the Top Rated Coding Bootcamps
Bloc has been named one of the top coding bootcamps of 2015 by Switchup, Skilledup, Techendo, and has been featured in Wired, Business Insider, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, LifeHacker, Gizmodo. The list goes on.
But what really matters is what our alumni have to say about the program. This post gathers alumni reviews from several third-party sites, like:
- Course Report — 110 reviews. 4.6 out of 5 stars
- Switchup — 46 reviews. 5 stars
- Quora — 10 reviews. 5 stars
Below you’ll find excerpts from over a dozen Bloc reviews that answer common questions with direct links to the full reviews from real students that paint an accurate picture of the challenges and joys of Bloc. Not included in this post is interviews and panel discussions we’ve done with our own alumni — here are a few examples of those.
What’s your overall experience been with Bloc?
“Where Bloc differs from the other bootcamps… [is holding] you to a high standard. You must have the hunger to learn, Bloc like any other educational institution can only support your pursuits — but they do it with grace and a level of patience I have never seen in any formal classroom.” –Jigesh, 5 stars
“I heard about Bloc through a friend who had over 10+ years in front end development. Bloc turned out to be an incredible experience. I thought I knew Ruby on Rails and Javascript before joining Bloc… and that was all due to self study. However, after going through Bloc, the difference is night and day. The curriculum is excellent and always improving. You learn through building real world applications in today’s most cutting edge languages and frameworks.” –Carl, 5 stars
How does the part-time option compare with a full-time bootcamp?
“This is why I picked Bloc. I didn’t want to quit my job or give up my life, but I still really wanted to enroll in a dev boot camp. Bloc gave me this opportunity.” –Kelson, 5 stars
“I work full-time, so Bloc’s flexible schedule was very appealing to me. I also like Bloc’s ongoing course improvements and offerings such as the new software engineering track. I’d strongly recommend Bloc for busy working professionals looking to make a career change.” –Virginia, 4 stars
“Bloc is one of a few, in my opinion, coding bootcamps that offer a fully online program. When you’re working full-time AND trying to change careers, this is the only way to go. I’ve researched several programs and found that this program had the best price to content available.” –Noel D, 5 stars
What feedback do you have on Bloc’s curriculum?
“[The] Bloc curriculum exceeds all expectations from beginner to advanced developers. Adding the regular direction and coding interactions with developers from Amazon to freelance, and everything in between moves Bloc to the top of the pack of coding bootcamps. I almost think it is unfair to call it a bootcamp as the knowledge you will gain is much more complete.” –Alvaro Mangual, 5 stars
“The curriculum is laid out in a structured, checkpoint format, growing in skill and difficulty as you move forward. The curriculum does, as some other Bloc reviews have mentioned, hand-hold on the early stages. Though this can seem off-putting to some, this technique is essential when it comes to teaching a student with ZERO coding experience… Checkpoints present you with a lesson and then giving you coding challenges / problems to complete afterwards. Many of them challenge you to think beyond a rote use of the code presented — it challenges you to think of new ways to learn code you have been presented with. This structure is a great entry into the way the coding world actually exists — taking knowledge you know and extending it towards new uses.” –Brandon, 5 stars
What did you think of Bloc’s mentor-lead approach vs. classroom learning?
“One on One genius [Mentorship] is the golden ticket to why Bloc is successful. The caliber of mentors that Bloc chooses may happen behind the scenes, but as a student I see and experience their expertise everyday.” –Patricia, 5 stars (Patricia also just landed a full-time job at ePublishing and her story was featured in WeAreTheCity!)
“I was completely blown away with my mentor. He was an amazing programmer and [an even better] teacher… I was challenged and tested at every turn. Not only did he teach me JavaScript, jQuery, AngularJS, and even how to build an Alexa Skill for Amazon, he taught me how to solve my own problems and… how to think first, then act my way out of the bug.” –Michael Medis, 5 stars
“I am currently on a plane to San Francisco from NYC for a job interview. I couldn’t have gotten here without Bloc and my mentor, Brittany. (HIGHLY RECOMMEND HER!) Bloc really puts a lot of effort into the mentor mentee relationship and I think that is a huge reason why I’ve been so successful! I really can recommend Bloc enough. I might have a job by the end of the week and I haven’t even graduated yet. You won’t be sorry, trust me!” –Katelyn Hertel, 5 stars (She got the job she was interviewing for! Check out her story here.)
How did Bloc help you land a job?
“I’m now coming towards the end of my course and am applying for jobs. Bloc has a career and job prep section which has a wealth of useful info. They help you prepare you LinkedIn and Github pages and even run mock interviews so the first dreaded ‘white board’ test isn’t so scary. In less than a week of sending a few applications out, I’ve been contacted by three companies, I went to interview yesterday (so fingers crossed). Bloc has definitely prepared me for a career change and given me the tools to do so.” –Alice, 5 stars
“The curriculum is very thorough, and the team at Bloc is very passionate about seeing students succeed, providing a lot of job support, mock interviews, etc. The apps we make during the program are fun to work through and leave you feeling accomplished.” –Anthony, 5 stars
Do I need prior coding experience to be successful with Bloc?
“Before I joined Bloc I had never written a single line of code. I was a full-time middle school teacher for four years…. Other coding schools require you to have some sort of pre-existing skill, and they only accept students who pass certain benchmarks. Bloc doesn’t do this. It accepts anyone who has an interest to alter their trajectory, and eases them into what anyone initiated knows is a challenging skill to learn and master.” –Brandon, 5 stars
“When I looked at my past two months, I just can’t believe how much I have learned at Bloc. Before I started the course, I did not know anything about Rails. Now I have 7 complete projects on my portfolio. It took just two months. Incredible.” –Anonymous, 5 stars
Can you point me towards students who blogged about their Bloc journey?
One of the best ways to get a feel for what the student experience will be like is to read Bloc reviews from students who blogged about their journey. Here are a few blogs to check out:
- Brian Douglas — he also created a Bloc review video at the end of his program
- Jeya Karthika — she actually tried Thinkful before Bloc and wrote a review comparing and contrasting them
- Charles Sipe — he wrote a review that summarized his entire program experience week-by-week
- Edwin Elia
- Nathan Beck
- Dan Rice
More Bloc Reviews
- How a high school teacher became a developer at IBM
- A recent story about how Patricia broke stereotypes by becoming a female developer over 40
- Three interviews from 2014
- A Panel Discussion with three alums at BlocHQ
- Women Who Code gives lighting talk on switching careers with Bloc
- Interview with one of Bloc’s first Design Bootcamp Grads
- Q&A with Bloc alum Jay Ottenstein
We believe Bloc works. And it changes people’s lives. But we don’t expect you to take our word for it. The results should speak for themselves. We encourage you to read all of Bloc’s reviews.
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