I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own • Hacker News Board

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#181

Post by convolvatron » Thu, Oct 28, 2021, 8:52 PM UTC

mtc010170 wrote: post #112

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's silly how often employers overlook the "I just really want to be part of/build this" factor. People with that make for excellent teammates. Every startup I've been a part of has picked up a few extremely passionate but not necessarily fully qualified people along the way. It's hard to turn down an enthusiastic candidate who really, really likes your company, so they're often given a chance. Some of them turned…

Well said, and this is especially a great point: > Passionate people are generally good when their skills and wants align with the company, but if they're not well-aligned then the passion just amplifies every conflict. I'm starting to see where my original comment was definitely oversimplifying the depths of this topic.

I agree completely. I have a pattern of joining projects because I really love the idea and the concept, but upon landing find out they are doing it _all wrong_.

and generally in these situations I find my criticism to be too deep and cross cutting to really be accepted or be really actionable.

so yeah, I think dialing up the passion just increases the magnitude of the risk or reward.

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#182

Post by squiggy22 » Thu, Oct 28, 2021, 8:56 PM UTC

lukedoolittle wrote: post #64

grifball wrote: post #12

>My favorite part of the photographic process was watching prints come to life. I loved starting with a blank sheet of paper and applying various photographic methods to bring the image to life. >I found that building websites was similarly satisfying. For example, click the "Reveal Image" button to watch an image fade in to the blank canvas! I think a lot about why I went into computer science and this is the same c…

I feel like for a lot of us, at its most basic level, software development is truly creative. It's not the activity that people traditionally associate with the term "creative outlet" but for me at least it's akin to combining human emotional experience and music theory to compose a song or a flavor inspiration and the 12 tastes in food to create a dish. Even further as I've moved into a Machine Learning Engineer rol…

Completely agree. I wonder what it is about programming something from nothing that still makes people think it isn't a creative pursuit. The Venn diagram of writers, painters, guitarists and programmers needs to be more heavily advertised to get past this stigma of engineer meaning some boring old fart typing mindless code at a keyboard.

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#183

Post by agumonkey » Thu, Oct 28, 2021, 9:04 PM UTC

grifball wrote: post #12

>My favorite part of the photographic process was watching prints come to life. I loved starting with a blank sheet of paper and applying various photographic methods to bring the image to life. >I found that building websites was similarly satisfying. For example, click the "Reveal Image" button to watch an image fade in to the blank canvas! I think a lot about why I went into computer science and this is the same c…

as opposed to inheriting legacy goldberg machines or walking on quicksand (by quicksand I mean constantly changing librarires fatigue)

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#184

Post by edgartaor » Thu, Oct 28, 2021, 9:23 PM UTC

plondon514 wrote: post #178

40four wrote: post #151

I don’t understand the title? How do you get ‘rejected’ by Code Academy? It’s not a ‘boot camp’ with an application process. You either do the free lessons offered, or pay up for one of the ‘Pro’ level tiers. This title seems sensational, and it’s misleading to people not familiar with Code Academy. Considering that, it doesn’t sell me on this product. In fact it makes me not even want to look at the lessons offered,…

Si ingles es mi lengua materna, pero hablo Espanol tambien.

Oh. Es raro ver español en hacker news

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#185

Post by 0xFACEFEED » Thu, Oct 28, 2021, 9:46 PM UTC

ironmagma wrote: post #167

0xFACEFEED wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. Dodged a bullet I'd argue that Codecademy dodged a bullet. Calling them out by name is in really bad taste IMO. Let's be honest: if he had launched a coding tutorial website thing and it didn't have the "comeback story" marketing narrative then no one would care.

What kind of harm does this actually do to Codecademy? I would argue none. There is no downside to calling them out.

Just look at the comment above mine: "booo on any company that". Some people will perceive his rejection as bad hiring practices on Codecademy's part.

Every comeback story needs a bad guy that rejects or pushes down the hero before they rise. That's what makes this post interesting.

It's certainly not the content; creating a web app of stitched together NPM packages isn't exactly a major challenge these days. Especially if you're copying something else feature-by-feature.

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#186

Post by HeyLaughingBoy » Thu, Oct 28, 2021, 9:48 PM UTC

boneskull wrote: post #140

dimitrios1 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hiring is hard. We, as an industry, simply cannot interview. We don't know how to accurately gauge a candidates experience, personality or knowledge. We can only make them perform monkey-see-monkey-do on a whiteboard or through stupid, asinine puzzles and leetcode style exercises. To make matters worse, we often place our most senior software developers on interview circuits. For better or for worse, engineers trend…

it’s “crapshoot” as in the game of craps, meaning “it’s a gamble” but crap-chute is pretty good too. just not for this sentence

It's a crapshoot whether or not you end up in a crap chute of a company.

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#187

Post by rpmisms » Thu, Oct 28, 2021, 9:48 PM UTC

samstave wrote: post #152

codingdave wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed - passion is great when aligned with the business direction, but can be downright toxic when in conflict.

Its where "mac fanbois" or "BOFHs" come from... I worked with a guy who was so mac focused he was blind to other tools/perspectives and it was often a friction point between team-members...

So many people like this just need a little dose of pragmatism. It helped my worldview immensely.

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#188

Post by HeyLaughingBoy » Thu, Oct 28, 2021, 9:50 PM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #165

KerryJones wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have -- quite a few times in quite a few different jobs. There actually is a lot more science to it than we usually take credit for. There have been studies that our typical interview process gives us 17% predictability of how they will perform, but if we do a contract-to-hire (of just one week) that improves to 80%. We have proven time and time again that certain times of interview questions are not helpful. If yo…

> There have been studies that our typical interview process gives us 17% predictability of how they will perform, but if we do a contract-to-hire (of just one week) that improves to 80%. The pool of candidates interested in full-time jobs is not the same as the pool of candidates interested in doing contract-to-hire positions. Contract-to-hire selects for people with the ability to risk working for a company for a p…

So, you're agreeing that it works, then.

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#189

Post by rpmisms » Thu, Oct 28, 2021, 9:53 PM UTC

m00x wrote: post #160

johnwheeler wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, you don’t want to be rude? Really? Why just come in here to shit on the devs project? I saw your previous “constructive” criticism. Do you know how hard it is? How many fine details are involved in launching something? Please display some of your solo work, so we can see the merits of your valuable “feedback”

I definitely know how hard it is, I have 10 years of experience and I'm now staff eng and team lead at a 50B+ MC company. I had my own startup, and built many projects first-hand, but I'm not going to de-anonymize myself for the sake of argument. In my opinion, it should always be hard. OP had a good launch and delivered, which is something that's incredible and that only I also love the fact that he did this out of…

I hope I never work on your team, the attitude you're displaying would me an instant no-go from me. Junior devs need encouragement, guidance, and positive feedback. You've managed to wrap semantically positive feedback in a negative mantle. Please leave this guy alone and allow him to continue kicking ass.

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#190

Post by 0xFACEFEED » Thu, Oct 28, 2021, 9:57 PM UTC

jgwil2 wrote: post #121

0xFACEFEED wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. Dodged a bullet I'd argue that Codecademy dodged a bullet. Calling them out by name is in really bad taste IMO. Let's be honest: if he had launched a coding tutorial website thing and it didn't have the "comeback story" marketing narrative then no one would care.

If it's so easy to build a coding tutorial website, then what advantage does Codecademy have beyond name recognition? So you're not competing with their tech, you're competing with their marketing. You say bad taste, I say good marketing.

I don't think it's objectively good marketing. But then I guess it depends on what your philosophical stance is on "succès de scandale" (a logical extreme; there isn't much controversy here).

My stance on the ethics of marketing is that "anything goes" until you start tarnishing the names of others to get ahead. This is why trash talking past employers/coworkers has always been an insta-no-hire in my book for example.

Now I don't know to overstate what this guy did. Obviously he's not outright trash talking here. But I think once you form a company and start marketing then you should be held to some ethical standard. If you mention other people or companies by name then consider how what you're saying could be perceived.