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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

#141

Post by yangtheman »

j3 wrote: post #30
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 :)

What level of pay should accepted applicant expect... Market rate for junior level programmer in DC area? Is there anyway you can provide a ballpark figure (like $80K or something) for those who might think about changing his/her career?

Re: Hungry Academy - get paid to learn Ruby

#142

Post by jackowayed »

john_p_wood wrote: post #139
nik_0_0 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In reply to you and smountcastle, here is the text verbatim: If you survive the five-month program, you’ll be offered a position on LivingSocial’s elite engineering team (18-month commitment required). I read this as, if you TAKE the position on the elite engineering team after the five-month period, the contract is for 18-months. I don't think it is necessarily tied to the 5-month learning period.

I thought the same thing. However, it looks like this was cleared up in another thread. It seems as though you are expected to join Living Social at then end of the training. So, it's not really an "offer" after all.

"expected" doesn't necessarily mean "required". Unless one of the things they have participants sign when they agree to do the program lays out specific penalties for refusing the job offer or leaving before 18 months, they're not required to do anything. And if such a clause does exist, there absolutely should be a lower bound on the salary, benefits, etc. in that contract, so that they know they're not agreeing to work for minimum wage for 18 months.

Re: Hungry Academy - get paid to learn Ruby

#143

Post by j3 »

thebrokencube wrote: post #103
j3 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's fair. We wanted to make sure people know this isn't just "show up at 9, leave at 5." There are significant outside of the workday tasks like hacking on projects, reading books, meeting with colleagues, and teaching Ruby to kids. But I'm not chaining anyone to a desk for 70 hours because _I_ don't want to live that way, either.

Wait, you'd get to teach Ruby to kids? I'll be honest, all of the things for the program sound really awesome, but this is by far the most appealing point for me. I remember hearing a saying/quote which went along the lines of "if you can't explain something to someone else, then you don't really know the material", and I tend to agree with this sentiment for the most part. I think this is a great opportunity you guy…

It won't be required, but I'll strongly encourage people to join me in volunteering with CodeNow, a program teaching dev skills to high school kids.

Check out http://codenow.org/ and scroll way down for the video of me trying to eat a jar of jelly.

Re: Hungry Academy - get paid to learn Ruby

#144

Post by j3 »

nassosdim wrote: post #132
j3 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, I was mixed up about this. It's still possible for future iterations of the program, but for this one they've decided "no."

That's alright. I keep hearing a lot about how hard it is for a company to sponsor someone and, given the short notice, I was struck surprised by it.

I think the calendar/rush is a bigger problem than the will/funding. I will do my best, for future iterations, to invite the world.

Re: Hungry Academy - get paid to learn Ruby

#145

Post by willyum »

vaksel wrote: post #120
cjoh wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't work for Living Social, but I think it's a huge risk that they're taking. The form is burdensome because it needs to be. The only people that they should get are people that really want to learn and that's exactly what they'll get here. Remember, the entrepreneurish techie on HackerNews is likely not their audience. The 19 year old fixing Mom's computer who just failed organic chemistry and might not want to…

the 19 year old wouldn't hear about the opportunity in the first place

19 year old chiming in. Willing to take a break from getting a degree for a great experience like this. Now to convince my parents...

Re: Hungry Academy - get paid to learn Ruby

#146

Post by j3 »

willyum wrote: post #145
vaksel wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the 19 year old wouldn't hear about the opportunity in the first place

19 year old chiming in. Willing to take a break from getting a degree for a great experience like this. Now to convince my parents...

Apply, then if you're accepted I'll call your parents.

Re: Hungry Academy - get paid to learn Ruby

#147

Post by j3 »

smountcastle wrote: post #123
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?

Is the contract published somewhere? What if something unexpected comes up, say their spouse develops cancer and they need to move to another state to get the best treatment possible? Probably a poor example as Living Social would let that person work remotely, but still, it's a contract -- what are the consequences of breaking it? For similar offers, the 'apprentice' simply needs to repay some or all of the cost of…

Yep, that's my understanding -- it's basically "we spent $xx,xxx training you, then you left. We think you owe us $yy,yyy."

That being said, it's a company of humans. What good is a developer who's shackled to their desk while a spouse is distressed in another state? None. There will be a way to work it out. We want you to be happy and great at building software, not imprisoned.

Re: Hungry Academy - get paid to learn Ruby

#149

Post by sabj »

Certainly a very interesting program - many props to the Living Social team for setting this up. I'm curious about the logistics involved - both the questions about the commitment / expectation piece, and the actual program itself. Would be good to have some contact information on the page, or some FAQs. But, great idea, hope it works out well and others follow!

Re: Hungry Academy - get paid to learn Ruby

#150

Post by trifu »

I know someone earlier said this program isn't available to non americans, but is there some special policy set up for Canadians (since we're so close....and have been bffs for so long! :D) Myself (web applications developer) and my gf (band teacher) were thinking of throwing in an application, but if Canadians also don't qualify then there's really no point?
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