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BloomTech, previously Lambda School, cuts half of staff

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Re: BloomTech, previously Lambda School, cuts half of staff

#211

Post by chrisseaton »

raverbashing wrote: post #162
MivLives wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They had a prebootcamp with a free course that taught the basics. Some people cheat through that though and didn't quite process that... you can't really pull that off through the whole program? I totally saw people who had never coded before succeed, I'm not sure I could pick out in an interview who would do well and who wouldn't. It's a marathon not a sprint. For the selectivity thing... I'm really not sure. The se…

Funny how some people think that "programming though Stack Overflow" will keep working after you progress to a certain level School mentality (and I might add: grifter mentality as well)

I’m Senior Staff and still have to use Stack Overflow regularly!

Re: BloomTech, previously Lambda School, cuts half of staff

#213

Post by nemo44x »

user3939382 wrote: post #116
austenallred wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your point is one must understand 100% of computing before being hired as a software engineer none of us would ever be hired. You can produce value long before you understand everything there is to know, of course, and a lot of being a software engineer is being able to problem solve on the job. BloomTech exists to help people get to the point they can do that and create value. No school can pretend to teach every…

My point isn’t to learn 100% but how about 5 or 10? The complexity of the work just doesn’t seem to match the duration of these programs.

A lot of software jobs are collecting data from a source, doing something with that data, and then putting it somewhere. It’s just CRUD over and over.

Re: BloomTech, previously Lambda School, cuts half of staff

#214

Post by ibarearer »

laserlight wrote: post #161
austenallred wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can see our 2021 audited outcomes report here with all of the data https://www.bloomtech.com/reports/outcomes-report . (Note: 2021 outcomes report is very recent as you have to get students graduated, give them time to get placed, etc.) Some of it I'm thrilled about, some of it shows us where we have more work to do (or need to do better in admissions - candidly it's always a difficult balance between giving folk…

This comment got me interested, so I dived deeper into the report [0]. Learners are divided into three groups: graduated (59%), still enrolled (5%), and withdrawn (36%). Graduated learners are further divided into two groups: job seeking (63%: ~37% of all learners) and non-job seeking (37%: ~22% of all learners). Here's the definition of “non-job seeking”: “A BloomTech graduate who has been unresponsive to outreach,…

I see, that’s … extremely unimpressive especially if you take the median salary increase from above. And I think maybe we should take everything else this guy is saying as potentially dishonest. Not including people who stopped trying to get a job is just an absurd way to do this calculation. Imagine a clinical trial that just ignores everyone who disconues due to adverse events. These stats seem borderline predatory

Re: BloomTech, previously Lambda School, cuts half of staff

#216

Post by [deleted] »

j-bos wrote: post #193

Bias declaration: I'm a hired Bloomtech grad, so overall a satisfied customer/student. Meta comment: It's intersting to see how many comments on any Bloomtech/Lambda post are very knee-jerk in nature, mostly negative some positive. And to be clear, I'd say most are thoughtful. The thing that strikes me is that I can't tell if this is normal HN tenor for a tech story or if it's just because I have opinions on the subj…

[deleted]

Re: BloomTech, previously Lambda School, cuts half of staff

#217

Post by OliverGilan »

austenallred wrote: post #153
sandofsky wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We've been over this again and again, and I know you understand that this isn't true, but don't care. The misconception comes form comparing two different measures: one that is (hired students making more than $50k/enrolled students), the other (hired students/graduated students) Your website, September 2019: https://web.archive.org/web/20190930144525/https://lambdasch... "86% of Lambda School graduates are hired w…

Oh boy, you keep taking all sorts of things out of context and comparing all sorts of things that don't make any sense to each other. A couple months ago I said our outcomes currently are the best they've ever been. That is a different set of students than those included in that outcomes report, and it is from a smaller subset than an entire years' worth of average placement. If you try to take a very specific commen…

Don't really know the situation too well but I really appreciate these explanations. I think what people often misunderstand about Bloom and other bootcamps is 1) education is really really hard in general and software engineering is a really hard topic. I'd argue the default is most won't succeed. 2) Bootcamps like this are fighting an uphill battle because of selection bias. If you're applying to a bootcamp like this it's probably because you couldn't get into a college or you did but dropped out or don't have the money, etc. People think it's bizarre when 30% of grads stop looking for a job but it makes sense. These are people from all walks of life with different constraints than the average student. 3) Regulatory schemes in general is batshit crazy in the US. Messing up here and there is not always indicative of malintent, especially for a startup.

This is certainly a problem domain that needs to be solved imo so I'm rooting for Bloom unless they really prove to be harmful. We need better pipelines for people with talent and motivation to climb the social ladder and learn new skills outside of traditional academia.

Re: BloomTech, previously Lambda School, cuts half of staff

#218

Post by mplewis »

kirillbobyrev wrote: post #113
MivLives wrote: post #52

I graduated Lambda School and currently have been hired and work in a software position. I don't encourage people to go to... Bloomtech they're calling it now. AMA. I was earlier in the life of Lambda. I got what I needed out of it but I watched a lot who didn't.

Where _would_ you encourage people to go for similar purpose with higher quality? Are there any particular bootcamps/online schools you think are good? Some of my friends and family are eager (and IMO perfectly capable) to learn CS and enter the Software Engineering field, so I'm curious what would be a good way for them to do so (without spending 4 years on college again).

Turing School is the only one I recommend. I personally know four people who got into software careers through their full-time programs.

Re: BloomTech, previously Lambda School, cuts half of staff

#219

Post by jraines »

awb wrote: post #6

Has anyone had success hiring bootcamp grads? I’ve interviewed dozens and their resume will say something like “Fellow at [bootcamp]” or “Instructor at [bootcamp]”, and it turns out they made a simple programming 101 app and taught a 1hr intro to JavaScript class. None have ever passed an initial screening by me for mid level dev jobs, but I’m curious if anyone else has hired a bootcamp grad for a junior role and had…

I have hired them and taught a class. Rule of thumb if you can find they were top 1 to 3 in the class they’re probably a good if not great junior dev candidate.

My golden 2 pieces of advice to bootcamp grads:

Don’t use the resume template the bootcamp gives you. If 2/3 of your resume is “software projects” you’re probably getting screened out at this point even if you’re actually good, it’s a tell.

Second, since you’ll still need to include one or two, spend time polishing the heck out of them and make sure they are online and working! Best if they’re not a microblog, recipe/beer picker, or pokedex. Do the same polishing for your personal site. If it looks like crap you’re probably getting screened out on this, too.

Re: BloomTech, previously Lambda School, cuts half of staff

#220

Post by dzader »

austenallred wrote: post #203
effingwewt wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

The fact that we changed our name because of a trademark lawsuit is a matter of public record https://dockets.justia.com/docket/california/candce/4:2019cv...

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