Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Does anyone actually hire from 'developer bootcamps'?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 264 posts

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone actually hire from 'developer bootcamps'?

#71

Post by ghaff »

dmoneyblah wrote: post #39
k-mcgrady wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strange I thought that's what a masters degree was - a bachelors + 1 year. Is there another type? I always thought the extra year would have to be in the same field of study but apparently not. I don't think it even has to be in the same 'school' (i.e. someone with a BS can do a 1 year engineering masters).

This term may depend upon the country. In the UK, masters programs are 1 year full.

It really depends on the program and the thesis requirements. It can also depend on whether the Masters is an "add-on" to an existing BS at the same school or you go into a new program. In my case (long time ago), I did a Masters at a different school and it was very typically a two year program--basically one year of classes and one year of mostly thesis/directed study. But, as I recall, there were other schools that offered Masters at the time that were more typically one year programs (and did not require a thesis).

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone actually hire from 'developer bootcamps'?

#72

Post by wch »

nsxwolf wrote: post #56
selllikesybok wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Our experience was good. We wouldn't do it again. If the experience was good, why not?

You chopped the context out of the quote. I thought the original was sufficiently explanatory.

That's actually not true. He/she quoted the original two sentences. The parent post was later edited to add a third (middle) sentence.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone actually hire from 'developer bootcamps'?

#73

Post by harshoninternet »

Heads up: I run one of these schools in SF and Austin, MakerSquare.

>But if the stats that these bootcamps throw out are true, there are companies hiring people at $100k who, twelve weeks ago, had never opened a text editor in their lives.

This is a very extreme case. As part of the admissions process for most great schools, people who have never opened a text editor are shown tutorials, books, and videos to prepare for the admissions challenge. They wouldn’t be accepted until they can solve basic programming challenges. Example: (mks.io/ac1, mks.io/ac2)

There are some schools who admit “people who have never opened a text editor in their lives”. Flatiron School, MakerSquare, Hack Reactor and a few others are not those. IMHO, programs who admit very beginner students like those should be 6 mo - 1 year long.

> The run-of-the-mill web and mobile developer positions all demand at least some level of experience (generally 2-6 years)

Almost all of our graduates are hired for positions that advertised needing 2-4 years of experience.

> And if it's really possible to build a rails developer from scratch in 10 weeks, why not just just do it in-house through an internship program and avoid paying commission to these schools?

Properly vetting who would be a good student is hard (admissions), properly teaching people is hard, and creating a proper learning environment is also very hard (Most education institutions fail at one or more of the above). All of the above are certainly not core competencies of software companies, nor do they need to be.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone actually hire from 'developer bootcamps'?

#74

Post by raderj89 »

I got my BA in journalism and Chinese. I started coding on my own and eventually found Bloc, an online bootcamp with courses in web dev, frontend, UX design, iOS and Android development. I took their web dev course little over a year ago. I now work at Bloc as a web developer (oh, we're hiring engineers by the way). It worked for me and it's worked for tons of our students.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone actually hire from 'developer bootcamps'?

#76

Post by littleweep »

cllns wrote: post #46
aviflombaum wrote: post #36

Flatiron School has published an audited 3rd party job report about the success of our graduates. http://flatironschool.com/jobs-report-2014 AFAIK we're the only school to actually do that and not just talk about it. Additionally, if you're into more of a narrative, check out our annual report. http://far.flatironschool.com/ Judge for yourself. Avi Flombaum

I'd like to read this, but I don't see why I should have to share my email address with y'all to do it.

(You can enter a fake one.)

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone actually hire from 'developer bootcamps'?

#78

Post by coolsunglasses »

JimboOmega wrote: post #58

When I was interviewing over the summer, the VAST majority of candidates I got for my mid-level rails position were from one of these bootcamps. I'm willing to give anyone a try, and so I interviewed a lot of them over the phone, and gave nearly all of them the coding exercise. Which they almost universally failed to complete. Still, I wound up hiring one as very junior. And that's exactly what she is. I don't have t…

Would you mind sharing the exercise? I'm writing a book and would like to know the pass-rate of my students.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone actually hire from 'developer bootcamps'?

#79

Post by zorrb »

cllns wrote: post #46
aviflombaum wrote: post #36

Flatiron School has published an audited 3rd party job report about the success of our graduates. http://flatironschool.com/jobs-report-2014 AFAIK we're the only school to actually do that and not just talk about it. Additionally, if you're into more of a narrative, check out our annual report. http://far.flatironschool.com/ Judge for yourself. Avi Flombaum

I'd like to read this, but I don't see why I should have to share my email address with y'all to do it.

Yeah. This seems odd. I get you're running a business but ostensibly the reason for this report is to allow people to view the legitimacy of the program and not as a means to get people on your mailing list.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone actually hire from 'developer bootcamps'?

#80

Post by nsxwolf »

wch wrote: post #72
nsxwolf wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You chopped the context out of the quote. I thought the original was sufficiently explanatory.

That's actually not true. He/she quoted the original two sentences. The parent post was later edited to add a third (middle) sentence.

Oh, pardon then. The original really does read strange.
Post reply on HN