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Hungry Academy - get paid to learn Ruby

hungryacademy.com

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Re: Hungry Academy - get paid to learn Ruby

#21

Post by oinksoft »

j3 wrote: post #20
oinksoft wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

18-month commitment required

That's pretty short, no? Get an unparalleled education in modern software development, step into a high-paying job, and we ask you to stay just 18 months?

No guarantee it will be high-paying, and the word "required" implies that at some point in this process you become beholden to your educators. They certainly don't want any applicants taking the paid education and leaving, so I can imagine some print, fine or otherwise, indemnifying a worthy student (one who is offered a job) should they not fulfill this 18-month requirement.

Re: Hungry Academy - get paid to learn Ruby

#23

Post by pitdesi »

This is pretty smart recruiting by livingsocial, certainly one way to bridge the talent shortfall, but i wonder what happens if someone wants to leave? Will be interesting to see how it all plays out

Another similar program but without the lock-in is Code Academy (http://codeacademy.org) in Chicago. It is different than hungry academy in that you pay up front ($6k) but my understanding is that most of their students are going to be offered a job with Groupon (where it is hosted) or another LightBank company, but under no obligation to do it. I think some of the current students might be starting their own companies instead.

Feefighters did a guest lecture, and i know theyve had a bunch of other a-list guest speakers, including dhh and harper (cto for obama). I met some of the students at an hn meetup, and they were pretty awesome, motivated and bright.

Pretty cool that both of these exist though, I think they'll continue to grow. There are a lot of people who didnt do comp sci in school and don't want to do it on their own

Re: Hungry Academy - get paid to learn Ruby

#24

Post by john_p_wood »

jeffclark wrote: post #19

Is the job salary negotiated before the program? I feel like it must be hard to accurately judge someone's programming value before they learn how to program. What happens if, at the end of the 5-month program, they offer you a desperately low-paying salary? Have you wasted 5 months and moved to DC for nothing?

Something tells me that after making it though a program like this, you'll have plenty of job options, with the one from Living Social just being one.

Re: Hungry Academy - get paid to learn Ruby

#27

Post by tibbon »

oinksoft wrote: post #21
j3 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's pretty short, no? Get an unparalleled education in modern software development, step into a high-paying job, and we ask you to stay just 18 months?

No guarantee it will be high-paying, and the word "required" implies that at some point in this process you become beholden to your educators. They certainly don't want any applicants taking the paid education and leaving, so I can imagine some print, fine or otherwise, indemnifying a worthy student (one who is offered a job) should they not fulfill this 18-month requirement.

Still sounds better than dumping 4 years and $160K on a normal degree and then finding no jobs afterward.

I've got a friend now who is a cook in a kitchen. I've been trying to convince him to learn Ruby. This is a killer thing for him. He's making like $12/hr now. Even a "bad" paying programming gig will surely beat that.

Re: Hungry Academy - get paid to learn Ruby

#28

Post by jvanderwal »

pitdesi wrote: post #23

This is pretty smart recruiting by livingsocial, certainly one way to bridge the talent shortfall, but i wonder what happens if someone wants to leave? Will be interesting to see how it all plays out Another similar program but without the lock-in is Code Academy ( http://codeacademy.org ) in Chicago. It is different than hungry academy in that you pay up front ($6k) but my understanding is that most of their student…

I just interviewed with them and they stressed very heavily that they do not guarantee any sort of job.

Re: Hungry Academy - get paid to learn Ruby

#29

Post by j3 »

pitdesi wrote: post #23

This is pretty smart recruiting by livingsocial, certainly one way to bridge the talent shortfall, but i wonder what happens if someone wants to leave? Will be interesting to see how it all plays out Another similar program but without the lock-in is Code Academy ( http://codeacademy.org ) in Chicago. It is different than hungry academy in that you pay up front ($6k) but my understanding is that most of their student…

CodeAcademy is totally awesome. I'm the instructor for Hungry Academy and an advisor for Code Academy (http://codeacademy.org/staff).

CA is an awesome program where you can get a great start and be independent. HA is a larger scale (20 weeks), you're paid during the program, then expected to join the engineering team full time. You're not guaranteed a job, but if you aren't ready for the team then I haven't done my job.

I think the programs serve a slightly different audience and the community is better off having BOTH.

Re: Hungry Academy - get paid to learn Ruby

#30

Post by j3 »

jeffclark wrote: post #19

Is the job salary negotiated before the program? I feel like it must be hard to accurately judge someone's programming value before they learn how to program. What happens if, at the end of the 5-month program, they offer you a desperately low-paying salary? Have you wasted 5 months and moved to DC for nothing?

It's not negotiated before the program. In DC alone, we're seeing explosive growth in the Ruby community, so there are opportunities with the government, contractors, startups, you name it.

If you put your heart into the program there will be a job at LivingSocial for you. And the pay is very nice :)

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