LinkedIn to Buy Online Education Site Lynda.com for $1.5B • Hacker News Board

Re: LinkedIn to Buy Online Education Site Lynda.com for $1.5B

#101

Post by eyeareque » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 5:31 PM UTC

dabernathy89 wrote: post #84

Someone1234 wrote: post #18

This, to me, is terrible news. I am a big fan of Lynda.com. They've always had a great library (both for tech' stuff but are also one of few sites that offer non-tech video training (business courses, photography, etc) and their prices were always very reasonable. LinkedIn can only make the site worse as far as I am concerned, and I already avoid LinkedIn due to the fact that they've essentially become spammers who w…

Every time an announcement like this is made, there is premature mourning. I understand skepticism , but what's the point in saying goodbye before anything has even changed?

It's because they were bought by linkedin, not many people's favorite. They're known for doing some borderline shady practices.

Re: LinkedIn to Buy Online Education Site Lynda.com for $1.5B

#102

Post by chestnut-tree » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 5:57 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #73

bdcravens wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Safari is good, but wouldn't something like Pluralsight be closer to Lynda?

I don't really think either Safari or Pluralsight is a good replacement for Lynda. They're both focused on very IT/technical topics (which I enjoy, but that isn't ONLY what I enjoy). Lynda actually wasn't as good as Pluralsight purely on technical topics, but what they did very well was "everything else." Their niche (if they even had one) was that they did other topics.

For design software and design-related topics, there is skillshare.com. SkillShare has really grown in popularity over the past year. The quality can vary, as you'd expect. But then I've found that to be the case with Lynda.com too. It's inevitable given the huge number of courses.

I'm a subscriber to Skillshare and think it's good value (just $9.99 a month, or $8 a month if you subscribe yearly).

Other sites that cover similar design topics and design software are: digitaltutors.com and tutsplus.com (I've not used either of these though).

Re: LinkedIn to Buy Online Education Site Lynda.com for $1.5B

#103

Post by bstar77 » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 6:03 PM UTC

btzll wrote: post #87

bstar77 wrote: post #86

Linda.com is one of those rare companies that has tempered assaults on their business model from every flank by sticking to what they do best and have somehow managed to come out shining. Seriously, these guys were founded in 1995, they've been through all of the web turmoil and still managed to improve their technology offerings and stay relevant. Not sure what this acquisition means, but I hope things don't change…

*Lynda.com

thanks, stupid autocorrect

Re: LinkedIn to Buy Online Education Site Lynda.com for $1.5B

#104

Post by webwanderings » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 6:33 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #47

jkestner wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does MCSE still pull weight? Are there newer certifications that matter now? What fields do you think will benefit from this certification? In design (one of Lynda's pillars), half of hireability is portfolio. I suppose in production roles, you'd want to know you're hiring technically proficient people, but that too you can mostly tell from the work. Perhaps this works as well, or better, from the angle of "People wh…

> Does MCSE still pull weight? Depends where you are in your career. I've heard it claimed that an MCSE can be a stand-in for a degree (yes, I know that makes no sense, but I mean from a recruiter's perspective when reviewing a candidate's overall qualifications, rather than relating to technical skill/knowledge). So in your first 1-10 years? It might help. I will say eventually you have to remove an MCSE from your C…

> if you had a Server 2000 MCSE on your CV right now,

Why? It would show strength and background of your past and history.

Re: LinkedIn to Buy Online Education Site Lynda.com for $1.5B

#105

Post by moheeb » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 6:45 PM UTC

webwanderings wrote: post #104

Someone1234 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does MCSE still pull weight? Depends where you are in your career. I've heard it claimed that an MCSE can be a stand-in for a degree (yes, I know that makes no sense, but I mean from a recruiter's perspective when reviewing a candidate's overall qualifications, rather than relating to technical skill/knowledge). So in your first 1-10 years? It might help. I will say eventually you have to remove an MCSE from your C…

> if you had a Server 2000 MCSE on your CV right now, Why? It would show strength and background of your past and history.

I know how to use a rotary dial phone too, but I'm not putting that on my resume. Some stuff just goes out of style....like Windows Server 2000.

Re: LinkedIn to Buy Online Education Site Lynda.com for $1.5B

#106

Post by gohrt » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 6:54 PM UTC

webwanderings wrote: post #104

Someone1234 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does MCSE still pull weight? Depends where you are in your career. I've heard it claimed that an MCSE can be a stand-in for a degree (yes, I know that makes no sense, but I mean from a recruiter's perspective when reviewing a candidate's overall qualifications, rather than relating to technical skill/knowledge). So in your first 1-10 years? It might help. I will say eventually you have to remove an MCSE from your C…

> if you had a Server 2000 MCSE on your CV right now, Why? It would show strength and background of your past and history.

"Server 2000,2003,2007,2013 MCSE" or such, would show continuous strength.

Re: LinkedIn to Buy Online Education Site Lynda.com for $1.5B

#107

Post by alexashka » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 6:54 PM UTC

kirinan wrote: post #5

This is a pretty interesting acquisition. Linkedin is trying to position themselves as a full service job market. If you want a particular job, go to Linkedin and even if you are missing a few skills you can pick it up on their site and get "Linkedin Certified". This provides Linkedin with a series of "Linkedin Certified Professionals" that recruiters need to pay to get access to. It's an interesting position to be i…

It's quite terrible, I mean, amazing for Lynda :)

Now that we have free Stanford, MIT, etc courses online, for free, what has Lynda got to offer? It's a sinking ship. The 'one-stop for all your learning needs' is simply a bad model - all programmers know this. You have to go and seek out different resources that work for you and now we CAN, more than ever. The only reason to choose Lynda is out of ignorance or laziness. Both of which are indicators of somebody you don't want to hire!

LinkedIn's head must be operating in oldschool mode of certificates actually meaning something. They don't. Unless they're HARD to get, really hard. And if they are, then you are better off going to a real college/university where you can get realtime feedback and support.

What few skills can a working programmer get from Lynda? Honestly...

Re: LinkedIn to Buy Online Education Site Lynda.com for $1.5B

#108

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 6:57 PM UTC

kirinan wrote: post #5

This is a pretty interesting acquisition. Linkedin is trying to position themselves as a full service job market. If you want a particular job, go to Linkedin and even if you are missing a few skills you can pick it up on their site and get "Linkedin Certified". This provides Linkedin with a series of "Linkedin Certified Professionals" that recruiters need to pay to get access to. It's an interesting position to be i…

[deleted]

Re: LinkedIn to Buy Online Education Site Lynda.com for $1.5B

#109

Post by Someone1234 » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 7:10 PM UTC

webwanderings wrote: post #104

Someone1234 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does MCSE still pull weight? Depends where you are in your career. I've heard it claimed that an MCSE can be a stand-in for a degree (yes, I know that makes no sense, but I mean from a recruiter's perspective when reviewing a candidate's overall qualifications, rather than relating to technical skill/knowledge). So in your first 1-10 years? It might help. I will say eventually you have to remove an MCSE from your C…

> if you had a Server 2000 MCSE on your CV right now, Why? It would show strength and background of your past and history.

It shows you haven't done anything worthwhile for 14 years(!). If you have to pad your CV out with stuff you know won't be relevant, then you're in a weak position professionally (or are just too lazy to update your CV, which might be worse).

A lot of older employees (late 40s or 50s) make this mistake. They leave experience on their CV which is not relevant because it is twenty or more years old, and then wonder why they struggle to find work.

Look, someone somewhere might legitimately want an SCO Unix expert or something to migrate them from Netware or NT 4.0 but in those rare cases customise your CV to put that experience back on, rather than making it the default for a lot of businesses that just don't care.

Re: LinkedIn to Buy Online Education Site Lynda.com for $1.5B

#110

Post by p1esk » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 7:10 PM UTC

calinet6 wrote: post #21

Congratulations Lynda.com! Story time. When I was in high school, I worked in a little computer lab in my small hometown of Ojai, California, that taught classes in Photoshop, Fireworks, web design and development, Flash, and more. That little technology education company was just called "Lynda," and classes were taught directly by Lynda Weinman, Bruce Heavin, and others. There were maybe ten or twelve employees. I l…

Wow, I subscribed to my first lynda.com class while working in a high school in Ojai! That was at Villanova, 2004 or 2005, Dreamweaver 4 class.