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Nanodegree Plus: Get hired within six months of graduating, or tuition refund

udacity.com

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Re: Nanodegree Plus: Get hired within six months of graduating, or tuition refund

#61

Post by ccontrast »

waisland wrote: post #52
icecube wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because a student who just graduated should not be teaching new students. They are way too junior and inexperience even if they are the top in their class. The bootcamp should be investing in quality instructors. Also, some bootcamps hire students that have trouble finding a job in order to keep their percentage of students finding jobs high.

This assumes that students hired by bootcamps are in primary teaching roles-- they're not! They usually end up employed as teaching _assistants_, which they are definitely qualified for. This also gives them an opportunity to continue learning while being paid, and it helps them launch into bigger and better jobs. Source: I was a bootcamp grad who was thrilled to be hired by my bootcamp. I learned a ton there. I work…

Can I get in touch with you?

Re: Nanodegree Plus: Get hired within six months of graduating, or tuition refund

#62

Post by jtcond13 »

bdcravens wrote: post #10

Sounds good, so long as they don't pull what some bootcamps do, which is hire former students

This is actually pretty common at your local MBA program (State U or similar). The widespread practice of using MA students to teach undergrad courses isn't far off, either.

Re: Nanodegree Plus: Get hired within six months of graduating, or tuition refund

#63

Post by abustamam »

grayje wrote: post #50
1024core wrote: post #39

Reminds me of a scam surrounding recruitment (in armed forces) in India. 100s of potential recruits come to the recruiting event. So scammers would go around pitching their services: give us 1000 rupees, and we'll get you in. If you are not selected, all your money back. In reality, they did nothing. If the guy got selected, they kept the money; if he didn't, they gladly refunded it. Easy money.

"Heads I win, tails you lose" The guarantee still doesn't prove that Udacity's credentialing process provides any incremental value above and beyond just taking the classes. Is it the knowledge, or the credential, that got you the gig? I'd like to see some kind of analysis comparing results for people who got certified vs. people who didn't. Any hiring managers in this thread? Would you ever hire someone, say, with n…

Front-End Nanodegree graduate here, and I recently got a job at a startup because of my final project with the program (neighborhood map--using Google maps and AJAX requests). My interview consisted of me adding a new feature to that project and explaining everything.

Would I have been able to have gotten the job without the actual Nanodegree? To be perfectly honest, probably. However, the Nanodegree provides structure to a rather cluttered catalogue of courses (not entirely a bad thing). Worth $200/mo? (That's how much it was for me to do it at the time). It depends on the person. Certainly cheaper than something like General Assembly or App Academy (not comparing the two as they are entirely different things, but they have similar "guarantees").

But knowing what projects I had to do, and what courses I needed to take to prepare for those projects, made it much easier for me to go through the curriculum, rather than just taking ALL of the front-end courses, ALL of the AJAX courses, etc.

Re: Nanodegree Plus: Get hired within six months of graduating, or tuition refund

#64

Post by abustamam »

peterchon wrote: post #15

I graduated from their front-end developer nano degree program last year when it first launched. It doesn't feel great that none of these new "guarantees" applies to me.

I'm a graduate too. Even if you were to start, brand new, their FEND program right now, you wouldn't be eligible for this guarantee.

It's only for the Sr. FEND, iOS, Android, and Machine Learning programs.

As a side note, I graduated before they had the "receive half your tuition back" and when they added it in, I asked if I could get half my tuition back. Support said I wasn't eligible, but gave it to me anyway.

I'd suggest you at least contact them to see what they can do for you.

Re: Nanodegree Plus: Get hired within six months of graduating, or tuition refund

#65

Post by abustamam »

peterchon wrote: post #60
madengr wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did it result in a decent job (if that was your goal)?

I was already employed as a FED, but it feels like they keep introducing these "enticements" and don't really care about the other cohorts.

They actually care about their alumni more than most universities care about theirs. The university I went to pretty much pretended I didn't exist, except for the once-a-year mandatory letter that said "Give us $100 to maintain your status in our alumni network." The benefits I'd get were basically socializing with other alumni, which I had no interest in doing.

If you graduated already, and therefore stopped paying tuition, it doesn't make sense for you to expect any additional services. I'm really grateful that, even a year past graduation, they still review my resumes and other professional documents. I haven't paid them a penny since I've graduated.

Re: Nanodegree Plus: Get hired within six months of graduating, or tuition refund

#66

Post by Obi_Juan_Kenobi »

bratsche wrote: post #54
saganus wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Is it wrong for boot camps to do that? I am genuinely asking since I'm not familiar with that. What exactly goes on and why is it bad?

Two reasons come to mind: 1. People who just graduated from a 12 week bootcamp are not really practiced and skilled enough to be mentoring others, imo. 2. It sounds like a way to inflate the bootcamp's placement rates, which seems really sketchy and borderline false advertising to me. My friend is considering this bootcamp around here called DevMountain and was telling me that the placement rate is supposedly around…

I don't recall which one, but one of the bootcamps does an independent jobs report where they hire some firm to track down how a cohort does. The 90-95% rates could be accurate, but probably for a 6 month period.

Re: Nanodegree Plus: Get hired within six months of graduating, or tuition refund

#67

Post by osoba »

rdudekul wrote: post #45
1024core wrote: post #39

Reminds me of a scam surrounding recruitment (in armed forces) in India. 100s of potential recruits come to the recruiting event. So scammers would go around pitching their services: give us 1000 rupees, and we'll get you in. If you are not selected, all your money back. In reality, they did nothing. If the guy got selected, they kept the money; if he didn't, they gladly refunded it. Easy money.

For $299/month, Udacity does a lot of work. I took a couple of their courses (could not complete) and those courses take substantial effort to complete. If someone is motivated enough to go through their (in my view) rigorous program, I could see how potential employers would be interested. More over there seems to be a shortage of solid Android/iOS developers. Solid training with Udacity's Nanodegree would be a defi…

Could you name a specific course you found too difficult to complete?

My experience was the exact opposite - most Udacity courses seemed (disappointingly) lightweight. I remember taking their Object-Oriented JavaScript course, which is marked on their website with "intermediate difficulty", and completing it all in an evening.

Re: Nanodegree Plus: Get hired within six months of graduating, or tuition refund

#68

Post by abustamam »

subrat_rout wrote: post #59
imh wrote: post #57

What an evil and misleading testimonial. They're trying to imply that he got a job at google because of the nanodegree, while you find out after the clickthrough that he simultaneously got a CS degree from UCLA.

I agree. I am one of the Nanodegree holder from first cohort in Front End Web Dev with healthcare background and healthcare related degree. I completed Nanodegree around 6 months ago. All I can say is I am facing a big hurdle to get an entry level position.

We were probably in the same cohort. Send me a note and I'll see if I can help you out.

rasheed [dot] bustamam [at] gmail [dot] com

Re: Nanodegree Plus: Get hired within six months of graduating, or tuition refund

#69

Post by abustamam »

MisterBastahrd wrote: post #58
goodJobWalrus wrote: post #2

Their title is misleading. You are not guaranteed a job, just a refund of tuition if you fail to get a job. Still, this is a lot more than your average university will guarantee you.

They can offer you a mentorship role (which nobody uses) and that nullifies the extra grand you'll end up paying over the cost of the normal nanodegree.

Did they roll their new mentorship program out, or are you referring to the "Team Guide" program that they stopped a few months ago? I was a part of that program and definitely earned more than I paid for the Nanodegree.

Re: Nanodegree Plus: Get hired within six months of graduating, or tuition refund

#70

Post by abustamam »

ccontrast wrote: post #61
waisland wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This assumes that students hired by bootcamps are in primary teaching roles-- they're not! They usually end up employed as teaching _assistants_, which they are definitely qualified for. This also gives them an opportunity to continue learning while being paid, and it helps them launch into bigger and better jobs. Source: I was a bootcamp grad who was thrilled to be hired by my bootcamp. I learned a ton there. I work…

Can I get in touch with you?

You can get in touch with me!

rasheed [dot] bustamam [at] gmail [dot] com

I'm a Udacity graduate who works "for" Udacity as a code reviewer, and I had a mentorship role not too long ago.

The general rule was, if you don't know the answer, direct the students to more senior person, but there were very few questions that students had that I was unable to answer. I actually learned more as a mentor than I did as a student, which was nice.

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