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Udacity Raises $105M Series D, Bringing Valuation to $1B

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Re: Udacity Raises $105M Series D, Bringing Valuation to $1B

#51

Post by subrat_rout »

brianbreslin wrote: post #48
subrat_rout wrote: post #40

I am one of the first cohort of Udacity to complete Front End Web Developer Nanodegree. However, when I applied for a developer job(something called Udacity Experience Program) on their career site, few weeks after I got an email describing I am not a good fit for the role. I have been looking for an entry level developer job for last couple of months. During job interviews when I mention regarding the Certification…

where geographically are you looking?

In SF Bay area. But considering relocation option. Due to several bootcamps in bay area the market is flooded with bootcamp graduates ( I am a bootcamp graduates too). So it is fiercely competitive job market especially for junior developers position.

Re: Udacity Raises $105M Series D, Bringing Valuation to $1B

#52

Post by pclark »

mattbillenstein wrote: post #24

I interviewed at this place -- comically bad. They're all clearly drinking the koolaid around a fire of VC money -- their CEO's ties to Google and resume will let them raise whatever funds they desire, but the people I talked to seemed elitist and really concerned about everything but the end product. We'll be talking about a "unicorn" failing in 2017 when they burn through this $105M...

i chatted with these guys and one of my good friends works there and can assure you your impression is mistaken. udacity will be a big company with a product that works and a healthy business model.

Re: Udacity Raises $105M Series D, Bringing Valuation to $1B

#54

Post by subrat_rout »

calebm wrote: post #53

Udacity has the absolute best online CS classes I've seen. My brother used Udacity to learn software development, and is now employed.

Hi Caleb, Care to elaborate a bit more about your brother's scenario? I am interested as I am a recent graduate from Udacity and looking for a junior developer position in SF Bay area.

Re: Udacity Raises $105M Series D, Bringing Valuation to $1B

#55

Post by bigtunacan »

el_benhameen wrote: post #49
bigtunacan wrote: post #33

I've used quite a few other (pay) MOOC services; subscription based, pay by class, free, etc... Pluralsight, Udemy, Lynda, Coursera, Code School, Stack Skills I've also used some small independent ones as well (Bitfountain is just one example). The thing I would be really curious to see (but unfortunately don't think we will see any time soon) is how the profit numbers stack up on these different pay models. For the…

As someone who wants to use perhaps one or two--but certainly not all-- of these services, I'm curious which of these services you've found most valuable. I'm asking generally, though I'm mostly interested in compsci/dev topics, if that's helpful.

It depends a bit what specific stacks you are interested in. Pluralsight and Lynda's "all you can eat" monthly subscriptions are probably the best since they just have more classes all around. Lynda by and far has the most classes available. They have more tech classes than Pluralsight, but they also have classes in many unrelated categories as well. The flip side; I think Pluralsight holds content authors to a higher standard. Once Pluralsight was heavily focuses on .NET, but they've branched out a lot more.

Coursera has some good stuff and it's free if you don't care about the cert. Their Functional Programming in Scala class is excellent.

Re: Udacity Raises $105M Series D, Bringing Valuation to $1B

#56

Post by yarou »

pclark wrote: post #52
mattbillenstein wrote: post #24

I interviewed at this place -- comically bad. They're all clearly drinking the koolaid around a fire of VC money -- their CEO's ties to Google and resume will let them raise whatever funds they desire, but the people I talked to seemed elitist and really concerned about everything but the end product. We'll be talking about a "unicorn" failing in 2017 when they burn through this $105M...

i chatted with these guys and one of my good friends works there and can assure you your impression is mistaken. udacity will be a big company with a product that works and a healthy business model.

You just admitted to being a shill. The question is, are you being compensated for it?

Re: Udacity Raises $105M Series D, Bringing Valuation to $1B

#57

Post by _delirium »

TheMagicHorsey wrote: post #5

I used to think these online educational companies wouldn't be very profitable in the long run. Then I discovered Udemy. In the last two months I've bought three courses on Udemy (at about $10-$20 each). The courses aren't your conventional CS classes. I bought a course on Photoshop mastery. Another on Android programming, and another on Adobe Illustrator skills. I've enjoyed the material so far. I have undergrad and…

I like a good deal of what's on Udemy, but it feels like for reasons totally different from the marketing. For me it's more like the online version of those video lecture series you used to buy on VHS or DVD through a "distance learning" mailorder catalog, and not so much like an online classroom. There's some course-like content in it beyond the lectures (quizzes and such), but imo the main value is really just the lectures, and the quality of the lectures is what differentiates good courses on there from bad ones.

Which is fine, video lectures are a model that's worked for a few decades, but now online and more convenient to shop for. And a good video-lecture course is certainly worth at least $10. I guess I can see why they don't brand it that way (the "disrupting education" hype train has money/press, while "mail-order video lectures, but on the internet" is a harder sell). But for me, their courses made a lot more sense to me once I started thinking of it as a place to buy a video lecture course, like the way you might order DVDs of the Feynman physics lectures.

Re: Udacity Raises $105M Series D, Bringing Valuation to $1B

#58

Post by pixelHD »

TheMagicHorsey wrote: post #5

I used to think these online educational companies wouldn't be very profitable in the long run. Then I discovered Udemy. In the last two months I've bought three courses on Udemy (at about $10-$20 each). The courses aren't your conventional CS classes. I bought a course on Photoshop mastery. Another on Android programming, and another on Adobe Illustrator skills. I've enjoyed the material so far. I have undergrad and…

Same here, I've bought close to 13 courses on Udemy. For learning React, Unity, and for brushing up my Nodejs, a few for game design and drawing etc. Also bought a Cocktail making course just for kicks.

I usually buy courses for 10$, which are good. But there are some awesome courses which costed a lot more, from 99$ to 199$. I used to add them to my wishlist so that I can buy them later when I save enough money, but sooner or later, all those wishlisted courses would be on sale for 10$. No idea if this is intentional, or if I picked the most popular courses and hence were on sale.

Re: Udacity Raises $105M Series D, Bringing Valuation to $1B

#59

Post by pclark »

yarou wrote: post #56
pclark wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i chatted with these guys and one of my good friends works there and can assure you your impression is mistaken. udacity will be a big company with a product that works and a healthy business model.

You just admitted to being a shill. The question is, are you being compensated for it?

I would have admitted that just like I admitted to knowing people there.

Re: Udacity Raises $105M Series D, Bringing Valuation to $1B

#60

Post by moistgorilla »

el_benhameen wrote: post #49
bigtunacan wrote: post #33

I've used quite a few other (pay) MOOC services; subscription based, pay by class, free, etc... Pluralsight, Udemy, Lynda, Coursera, Code School, Stack Skills I've also used some small independent ones as well (Bitfountain is just one example). The thing I would be really curious to see (but unfortunately don't think we will see any time soon) is how the profit numbers stack up on these different pay models. For the…

As someone who wants to use perhaps one or two--but certainly not all-- of these services, I'm curious which of these services you've found most valuable. I'm asking generally, though I'm mostly interested in compsci/dev topics, if that's helpful.

not the person you are responding to but i've found udacity and linda to be the most valuable. Short and to the point videos are more useful to me than long winded lectures.
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