Dev Bootcamp is shutting down • Hacker News Board

Re: Dev Bootcamp is shutting down

#21

Post by dbz » Thu, Jul 13, 2017, 10:23 AM UTC

ChrisdeLondon wrote: post #18

SlyShy wrote: post #3

As a former employee I have to say that Kaplan did a very fine job of running the place into the ground. Kaplan management managed to take an industry leader with first mover advantage and completely squander it by myopically focusing on quarterly profits. They really should have switched to a pay-after-getting-a-job tuition model that schools like AppAcademy offer. That would have simultaneously better met the missi…

Why is that superior? Strictly speaking, Dev Bootcamp doesnt have to worry about the success of students because it takes the payment upfront. AppAcademy take the first year payment with average graduating salary of $83K which works out at around $13K return for AppAcademy - the same tuition fees roughly as Dev Bootcamp - am I missing something here?

Former A/a grad here. The average graduating salary in SF for App Academy is 105k [1]. They charge around 20% which is 21k. They also have other revenue streams, so on average they likely make more per student on average than that.

[1] https://www.appacademy.io/

Re: Dev Bootcamp is shutting down

#22

Post by ChrisdeLondon » Thu, Jul 13, 2017, 11:00 AM UTC

dbz wrote: post #21

ChrisdeLondon wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that superior? Strictly speaking, Dev Bootcamp doesnt have to worry about the success of students because it takes the payment upfront. AppAcademy take the first year payment with average graduating salary of $83K which works out at around $13K return for AppAcademy - the same tuition fees roughly as Dev Bootcamp - am I missing something here?

Former A/a grad here. The average graduating salary in SF for App Academy is 105k [1]. They charge around 20% which is 21k. They also have other revenue streams, so on average they likely make more per student on average than that. [1] https://www.appacademy.io/

Thanks dbz thats really useful to know!

Re: Dev Bootcamp is shutting down

#23

Post by rodlevy » Thu, Jul 13, 2017, 11:26 AM UTC

This is truly a sad moment. I was part of DBC's first cohort in Chicago, and was so inspired by its capacity to transform lives that I founded something similar, Code Platoon, a nonprofit coding bootcamp for Veterans. DBC literally changed the lives of thousands of people. Strictly from a job training perspective, I can think of no training model that does a better job at addressing underemployment. The good news is that many great coding bootcamps followed DBC, and the model will continue to thrive.

Re: Dev Bootcamp is shutting down

#24

Post by zamansky » Thu, Jul 13, 2017, 12:10 PM UTC

I haven't actively followed DBC's trajectory but as a long time CS educator I've long said that education doesn't scale in the way that other tech sector initiatives scale, particularly if you want to maintain quality.

I'd really be curious to hear more about the obstacles to maintaining your quality that helped lead to this.

Re: Dev Bootcamp is shutting down

#25

Post by trowawee » Thu, Jul 13, 2017, 1:29 PM UTC

This makes me really sad. DBC changed my life dramatically. I wasn't a fan of some of the changes/decisions they made over the last few years, but I would be in a much, much worse place overall without DBC.

Re: Dev Bootcamp is shutting down

#26

Post by asangha » Thu, Jul 13, 2017, 3:58 PM UTC

phrowaway21231 wrote: post #12

Shereef Bishay sold out his staff and sold out his mission and he's going to the do the same to his staff at Learner's Guild in Oakland! He sold it off to Kaplan for 80M and his staff (with equity) got nothing!!! pump and dump. I interviewed for a role at Dev bootcamp in 2016 and got an odd feeling from the place and the guy who interviewed me. He took several months to get back to me after I followed up multiple tim…

This is fake news.

Re: Dev Bootcamp is shutting down

#27

Post by Shooogur » Thu, Jul 13, 2017, 4:32 PM UTC

So sad to see this. DBC is one of my largest clients and despite all the crap bootcamps take, I saw them first-hand transform lives and careers. End of an era. Incredible careers team, incredible instructors, incredible students, terribly sad and shocking development.

<3 Amir @ skilledinc.com

Re: Dev Bootcamp is shutting down

#28

Post by jcdavison » Thu, Jul 13, 2017, 5:50 PM UTC

sharksforcheap wrote: post #13

shawndrost wrote: post #6

(I'm a cofounder at Hack Reactor, a competitor.) DBC launched an industry. Early students/staff went on to start Hack Reactor, App Academy, and Hackbright Academy. Early students/staff of Hack Reactor went on to found Zipfian Academy (acquired by Galvanize -- went on to lead Galvanize's education efforts), Codesmith, and a half-dozen other bootcamps. I'm sure AA and HB alums went on to pass the gift on in their own w…

Shawn was actually the person who sent me that link and said "some guy wants to teach people to code in a coffee shop or something, you should check it out." Back then, I had been hacking things together and had an engineering job, but never felt like I had enough credentials to be a 'real' programmer. I ended up deciding to join the first class of DBC to see what it would be like. There ended up being 21 of us in a…

@sharksforcheap 'founderS' of CodeUnion and how was the graduating party of that first cohort not on your list ?

:)

Re: Dev Bootcamp is shutting down

#29

Post by _bison__ » Thu, Jul 13, 2017, 6:04 PM UTC

shawndrost wrote: post #6

(I'm a cofounder at Hack Reactor, a competitor.) DBC launched an industry. Early students/staff went on to start Hack Reactor, App Academy, and Hackbright Academy. Early students/staff of Hack Reactor went on to found Zipfian Academy (acquired by Galvanize -- went on to lead Galvanize's education efforts), Codesmith, and a half-dozen other bootcamps. I'm sure AA and HB alums went on to pass the gift on in their own w…

I graduated from DBC in 2015 and have been teaching as a Phase 0 Guide ever since. Even through engineering contracts and full time positions, I've continued to work with DBC and its students. I think this connection is so strong because I feel a deep gratitude for how my teachers, mentors, and peers helped shape me into the compassionate and curious developer I am today.

It's sad to see the program come to an end and I'm still digesting it, but the community and personal transformations that came out of DBC aren’t going anywhere. And for that I am thankful.

Re: Dev Bootcamp is shutting down

#30

Post by marksiemers » Thu, Jul 13, 2017, 6:24 PM UTC

(Current Teacher at DBC)

First, thank you all for the positive feedback. It means the world to us. Most of the teaching staff only found out about the decision a day or two before it became public, so we are only recently processing this. Trust me when I say that the gratitude that we're seeing...I'm just not sure what we would do without it.

Second, for our remaining cohorts, I want to give you an idea of the sentiment of the teachers at the moment.

We see this as an opportunity to go out on a high note. We know this is our last chance to have a deeply positive influence on students' lives. We don't want to squander that privilege.