How much research you did comparing different online coding bootcamps and why you ended up choosing Bloc?
I did spend a lot of research on online bootcamps, but actually spent more time researching in person bootcamps because I had no idea the online versions existed, mind you I started Bloc Dec 17th 2013 and amazed at the increased amount of resources in such a short amount of time.
I have a young child and even after much convincing, I could not proceed with the idea of attending an in person bootcamp although I did pass the initial application round of App Academy in San Francisco.
I actually chose Bloc over Thinkful due to the idea of having a one-on-one mentor, Thinkful has mentorships but it was more like what Bloc offers with Office hours. To answer another question, I do work as a Rails Engineer and really appreciate the fact that I work with other developers that I can ask question and gather ideas from. Prior to pulling the trigger on Bloc I spent a month learning Ruby/Rails on my own and even completed One Month Rails in 2 weekends, but when it came to branching out and doing something without the aid of a strict tutorial, i failed miserably.
I believe Bloc still starts on any Monday you choose based on the Mentor’s availability. I purposely chose a start date one month in advance, so I had time to back out. I spent a lot of time struggling to grasp concepts work through tutorials, I too felt I hit a learning wall, which is why I highly recommend a mentor type program. Mentors help you through the curriculum but also help with new ideas outside the curriculum. I tried a lot of cool things because I knew I had a mentor that could help me figure it out if I got stuck.
I was not only able to figure out how to troubleshoot rather quickly, I was also able to learn how to learn, which I was able to expand to other languages outside of Ruby. The concepts and practices I learned from bloc has helped me learn iOS and Javascript. It also helps when you know a bit of programming too, I came from a sales job and had a Finance degree, en route to finishing an MBA (Which I stopped). I had no programming experience and desire to pursue a career that on the outside was great.
Bloc also teaches you how to use git, sublime, and even helps you build actual applications to put in your portfolio. When I interviewed for the job I have today I was required to share code. All the code I shared came from the projects I did with Bloc.
Now being on the inside and hearing my recruiting talk about candidates, it is surprising how many graduates from universities have never heard of git or even have portfolio code to share. These graduates seem to be going through the same motions all other college students do. My recommendation, even if you do not decide to go with bloc, is to build an application no matter how basic, it just needs to be something to put in portfolio. This is something I have gotten away from while now learning different languages, I forget to apply it to a project to build my portfolio.
I also offer a recommendation to people interested in bloc which I outlined in this post, if you are interested. To some this task is easy, but this is one of the tutorials that left me in frustration when I was trying to learn on my own
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