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Lambda School lays off 65 employees

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Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#31

Post by 908B64B197 »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #24
idoh wrote: post #9

That's too bad. I'm rooting for Lambda School, they are trying hard to innovate in the area of education. Maybe ISAs are the future, maybe not, but the traditional university track of spending out $100K+ is clearly not the future. They should have been really excelling during the 2020 year of covid, I wonder where things went wrong. Anyone know?

Aligning educational incentives is hard because no one wants to take the risks (a student who could be a 1x-10x developer or just wash out) and the costs (quality engineering talent that could be making serious money in industry) on. Traditionally, you’d expect technology companies to have a pipeline to identify and cultivate junior talent (an apprenticeship). Instead, they rather pass the buck to leetcode and bootca…

> Traditionally, you’d expect technology companies to have a pipeline to identify and cultivate junior talent. Instead, they rather pass the buck to leetcode and bootcamps.

They do. It's called internships.

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#32

Post by wbronitsky »

The levels of inhumanity and doublespeak in here are staggering. This post attempts to euphemize 65 people losing their incomes, and probably healthcare, to the point that it reads almost as farce. Not to mention what the impact will be on those remaining, students and staff alike.

"...they believe it's impossible to make this model work.

We strongly disagree." This is wildly insensitive to those involved. I find it hard to imagine how the 65 people laid off today are going to make that make sense when trying to look for new jobs.

"...today's restructuring and right-sizing..." Is this to say that the 65 people who lost their jobs today were somehow wrong? Again, it staggers me how lacking in empathy these words about people losing their jobs, and probably healthcare, indefinitely.

"For employers looking to hire senior product, engineering, design, community management, or instructional staff, we'll be sharing a list of interested staff looking for their next opportunity on social media" And good luck current students; these people will take all the jobs you're aiming for.

Wow.

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#33

Post by forbiddenvoid »

encryptluks2 wrote: post #14
celim307 wrote: post #3

Anyone with knowledge know if this is isolated to lambda falling behind their peers, or the industry itself starting to turn away from hiring boot camp grads?

I think it is an industry moving away from boot camp grads. Almost all these boot camps focused on JavaScript and HTML/CSS. None of them were really teaching Linux sysadmin, clustering, scaling, etc. The real world needs developers that understand more than just frontend development.

Surprise, surprise, you can't speedrun engineering skills.

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#34

Post by HenryKissinger »

teruakohatu wrote: post #28

Can someone explain how you can train Data Scientists in 6 months? What jobs do these grads walk into? The tech prerequisite is: "You should feel extremely comfortable with how a computer works including: touch-typing, web browsers, search engines, and basic computer programs." The Curriculum: Stats, Linear Algebra AND Data Wrangling: 4 Weeks Modeling: 3 Weeks Data Engineering, Databases, SQL, Productionisation: 3 We…

> Stats, Linear Algebra AND Data Wrangling: 4 Weeks

Ridiculous. Introductory statistics and linear algebra are two separate undergraduate level courses. And if you want a real grasp of statistics, you need to learn probability theory first, which is another semester long course.

To say nothing of "data wrangling", whatever the fuck it means.

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#35

Post by andrew_ »

fridif wrote: post #17
bpodgursky wrote: post #2

Looks like a refocusing on the full-time program. Doesn't seem _too_ surprising, given how many part-time programs (ie, Coursera) have struggled to retain users distracted by jobs and life. I hope they figure it out. 4-year university education for everyone is a broken model, and students deserve a cheaper path that doesn't eat half a decade of their life.

Agree. I used to be against the technical interview process, but now I wholeheartedly believe in every facet of it (Leetcode, book knowledge, project based behavioral questions, system design). The quicker everyone learns these important concepts, non of which are taught in school or in bootcamps, the quicker one gets to be productive in programming.

leetcode/hackerrank is the worst thing to happen to tech interviews this decade.

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#37

Post by void_mint »

idoh wrote: post #9

That's too bad. I'm rooting for Lambda School, they are trying hard to innovate in the area of education. Maybe ISAs are the future, maybe not, but the traditional university track of spending out $100K+ is clearly not the future. They should have been really excelling during the 2020 year of covid, I wonder where things went wrong. Anyone know?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26946972

Not all degrees are 100k. Lots of STEM degrees pay themselves off. The real issue is the time commitment. Most code school students (IME) are career changers that can't afford to spend 2-4 years changing skillsets. Also, Lambda School caps ISA at 30k, which I would argue is insane for a 6 month fulltime program. To your 100k example, college is actually cheaper.

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#38

Post by toomuchtodo »

908B64B197 wrote: post #31
toomuchtodo wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aligning educational incentives is hard because no one wants to take the risks (a student who could be a 1x-10x developer or just wash out) and the costs (quality engineering talent that could be making serious money in industry) on. Traditionally, you’d expect technology companies to have a pipeline to identify and cultivate junior talent (an apprenticeship). Instead, they rather pass the buck to leetcode and bootca…

> Traditionally, you’d expect technology companies to have a pipeline to identify and cultivate junior talent. Instead, they rather pass the buck to leetcode and bootcamps. They do. It's called internships.

Will they take you with zero engineering experience? Because my local trades union will take you from zero to an electrical journeyman (a friend of mine went through such a program and now runs a crew in California performing electrical infra overhauls). I am unaware of any engineering org that’ll take you right off the street to productive commits. If anything, everyone is looking for the cream of the crop.

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#39

Post by staticautomatic »

pilingual wrote: post #27
lifer555 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a recent LS graduate. The program is a total shit show. I was able to get a job but I would never recommend it to anyone. They are just very good at marketing. Great idea, terrible execution.

What about it makes you say that?

The job is at a fast food restaurant.

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#40

Post by potatoman22 »

HenryKissinger wrote: post #34
teruakohatu wrote: post #28

Can someone explain how you can train Data Scientists in 6 months? What jobs do these grads walk into? The tech prerequisite is: "You should feel extremely comfortable with how a computer works including: touch-typing, web browsers, search engines, and basic computer programs." The Curriculum: Stats, Linear Algebra AND Data Wrangling: 4 Weeks Modeling: 3 Weeks Data Engineering, Databases, SQL, Productionisation: 3 We…

> Stats, Linear Algebra AND Data Wrangling: 4 Weeks Ridiculous. Introductory statistics and linear algebra are two separate undergraduate level courses. And if you want a real grasp of statistics, you need to learn probability theory first, which is another semester long course. To say nothing of "data wrangling", whatever the fuck it means.

Ehh, you could come close to condensing 1-2 college courses into 4 weeks. It wouldn't be fun though.
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