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CFPB Takes Action Against Coding Boot Camp BloomTech and CEO Austen Allred

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Re: CFPB Takes Action Against Coding Boot Camp BloomTech and CEO Austen Allred

#341

Post by sandofsky »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #217
sandofsky wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The company targeted the poor, single mothers, reformed convicts, and other disadvantaged groups. They tend to lack the free time or guidance to navigate these situations. If this work is trivial to you, I am happy to connect you with them to provide your services.

> If this work is trivial to you, I am happy to connect you with them to provide your services It is. I won't because this isn't something I care deeply about. The question is whether they would have been better off without arbitration, and the answer is no.

In January, a class action lawsuit was rejected by a judge due to the arbitration agreement in the contracts. The whole reason class action suits exist is to save thousands of people from having wage individual fights. If it had gone through, the victims could have done nothing and woken up one day to an email saying, "Your debts are clear."

I honestly can't think of a clearer example of arbitration agreements screwing people over.

Re: CFPB Takes Action Against Coding Boot Camp BloomTech and CEO Austen Allred

#342

Post by game_the0ry »

Man, I have so much to say about this...where do I even begin.

I attended a bootcamp myself (hack reactor). My experience overall was very good and I owe my (6 figure) income and current career to it - the students and instructors were both impressive. I was in a dead end career and now I have a new world opportunity opened up to me.

But that being said...

I think a couple of things killed the bootcamp model:

- Saturation. Insatiable student demand + no acceptance criteria (anyone can get in) means there is robust market for bootcamps. Hack Reactor (and a few others, like Fullstack Academy and App Academy) mitigated this somewhat bc you needed to pass a (difficult) interview to get accepted.

- Fraud. Bc there is no "accreditation" so anyone could star a bootcamp, including scumbags.

So I have mixed feelings.

Hopefully, the (terrible) job market will flush out some of the shit down the toilette, but I hate that innocents, people just trying to improve themselves, got caught up in the blast radius.

Re: CFPB Takes Action Against Coding Boot Camp BloomTech and CEO Austen Allred

#343

Post by mrguyorama »

solardev wrote: post #74
majormajor wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The math ends up wildly unfavorable unless you are EXTREMELY confident in your teaching/transformation abilities. If you look good on paper before the school then you don't need it and won't be motivated to share your income. So the applicant pool reduces itself to those who on-paper don't have great chances. So you need to cause a really big delta in the ability of those people to make good money in the industry for…

Well, presumably there's some people who wouldn't be able to afford the upfront tuition? But you're right, $30k (in the worst case) is a lot of money to pay for less than a year of bootcamp.

$30k is also enough to pay for a shitload of American state schools BS in Computer Science program. WTF That's about what I and my friends paid!

That includes room and board in an expensive dorm (it was part of the honors program I was in) and a meal plan with the school.

Re: CFPB Takes Action Against Coding Boot Camp BloomTech and CEO Austen Allred

#345

Post by cryptoxchange »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #269
ornornor wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn’t seem limited to that particular boot camp, sadly. I’ve instructed at two boot camps (one in North America and one in Europe). It seems to be standard practice in the industry: inflating placement numbers, very low quality material/curriculum and course material, a kind of omertà where students fear speaking up, admitting students who clearly don’t have the skills and will drown in the course, stringing y…

It’s really sad. My good experience at a boot camp seems the exception. We had a curriculum designed by people with a background in education, externally audited placement rates, an exceptional alumni network, instructors and mentors with industry experience. Most importantly, it was a non profit. It seems like there is something to be said for intensive vocational education. It’s a shame that there are so many peopl…

Do you mind sharing which bootcamp?

Re: CFPB Takes Action Against Coding Boot Camp BloomTech and CEO Austen Allred

#348

Post by mathattack »

laserlight wrote: post #315
abnercoimbre wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please contact the CFPB, it is worth your trouble. Everyone's blood should be boiling reading TFA, such as: > Allred tweeted that the school achieved a 100 percent job-placement rate in one of its cohorts, and later acknowledged in a private message that the sample size was just one student.

Here is an HN thread I had with him [0]. He claimed that 90% of those who were job seeking got placed. The key point was the definition of “job seeking”, of course. I'm happy to hear that authorities took action. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33827202

What a huckster!

Re: CFPB Takes Action Against Coding Boot Camp BloomTech and CEO Austen Allred

#349

Post by anonymoushn »

cool_dude85 wrote: post #276
beej71 wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that legal?

At least in the US, if this person received such an email they would be able to sue the company that sent it quite easily.

I spoke to a bunch of lawyers who all told me they hoped I found some lawyer who would do that. The EEOC decided that if a manager directs their reports (engineers) to advertise a position, then people apply to the position as directed by emailing the engineers, then the engineers say some stuff about gender quotas, that's fine, because the applicant didn't fill out some other form and the company disavows this recruitment process to the EEOC while using it to source candidates.

Re: CFPB Takes Action Against Coding Boot Camp BloomTech and CEO Austen Allred

#350

Post by celdon25 »

swozey wrote: post #262
dudeinjapan wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> 18th Century Polynesian Gender Studies You really had to use something as cringey as this ridiculous trope? Just go with underwater basket weaving or something less blatantly offensive to a portion of people while riding your high horse.

Shutting down discussion of a topic that otherwise has merits because you got offended by the idea is how we got here.

If you don’t like it you’re not forced to offer a valid rebuttal. You have the option to disagree or not. But taking the easy way out by shutting down the conversation just makes the situation worse for everybody. Nobody was on a high horse until you went there.

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