Flatiron School settles for operating without license, employment/salary claims

So, I don't know if he was serious and then later edited that page to say it was a joke, or if he meant it as a joke and intended to misteach beginners, or if he meant it as a joke and did not realize he was misteaching beginners, but in all three of those cases, I don't see why he's a person worth listening to, especially on the subject of training programmers.

If you read the AG release, the complaint was that "Flatiron did not disclose clearly and conspicuously" what the 98.5% and $75k numbers consisted of.

This information was included, in detail, in each of their job reports. This is from their earliest one from December of 2014:

"Of the 225 job seeking graduates with salary information available:

a. 162 accepted full-time salaried roles,

b. Forty-one accepted paid apprenticeships (An apprenticeship is defined as a paid position of defined duration, usually 8-12 weeks, often paid hourly and on a contract basis. Often an apprenticeship is used to evaluate a candidate for full time salaried status),

c. Twelve accepted contractor positions (A contractor position is defined as full-time or voluntary part-time, paid at market rate, and without the expectation that the initial rate is temporary and will be re-evaluated in 3-6 months).

d. Ten accepted freelance opportunities."

"7. Initial compensation for the full-time salaried roles ranged as follows:

a. Salary range of $40,000-$59,999 – nine individuals,

b. Salary range of $60,000-$69,999 – forty-six individuals,

c. Salary range of $70,000-$79,999 – forty-four individuals,

d. Salary range of $80,000-$89,999 – thirty-eight individuals,

e. Salary range of $90,000+ - nineteen "

On the web pages that contained the 98.5% and 74k figures, there was a link to download the report with the detailed data. The AG did not think that was clear enough for consumers - likely because the average consumer isn't going to download and read the details.

There's a difference between saying the data wasn't clear enough and the data was fraudulent. In this case, they are not disputing the numbers, they were disputing the marketing around those numbers.

Full Disclosure: I am a Flatiron alum and I worked at Flatiron for 3 years. I have problems with the top-level management team and would not work for any of them again. None of my reasons are related to their desire and ability to create great outcomes for the students that come through Flatiron School. I would (and have) recommend the immersive programs to people who want to start careers in web development.

Transparency can come from many fronts.

- Fullstack Academy: 97%

- Hack Reactor: 99%

- App Academy: 98%

- Dev Bootcamp: 90%

- Flatiron School: 98%

(He edited his post to take this down literally as I write my comment. Ie. after this article exploded on Hacker News. See the logs for proof: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-job-placement-rates-at-va.... Here is his original post: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jsek2oum4lioeja/Screen%20Shot%2020...)

The Quora post doesn't mention it, but I assume these numbers refer to job placement rate within three months. I attended Fullstack Academy back in 2014 and recall being told these numbers by Fullstack, and by all of those other bootcamps (I applied to them too). And I recall all of them referring to job placement rate within three months.

I believe there is plenty of evidence that all of this is true. There are plenty of press articles, such as http://www.businessinsider.com/4-traits-that-make-developers... corroborating it. And there are thousands of applicants and students who probably remember being told about job placement rates in the upper 90s.

Now take a look at the data from CIRR. Below I list the percentage of graduates who are hired as full time employees within 90 days of graduating:

- Fullstack Academy (New York City): 30.4%

- Hack Reactor (New York): 43.6%

See for yourself: https://cirr.org/data.

I can only conclude that back when we were all told that the numbers were in the upper 90s, we were either lied to, or intentionally mislead. Credit to them for pushing for transparency with CIRR, but shame on them for lying/intentionally misleading us all for a very, very long time.